Former Arsenal player Abou Diaby has been named the most injured player in football history, according to a list posted on Reddit, with the Gunners having seven former players feature on the list in total.
Joining Diaby on the list were Jack Wilshere, Thomas Vermaelen, Tomas Rosicky, Danny Welbeck, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey with data from Pop Foot illustrating the true extent of Arsenal's injury problems down the years.
Many other players on the list had a spell in the Premier League, with the likes of Arjen Robben and Vincent Kompany also joining Diaby as the top four.
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With a total of 21 injuries, Frenchman Diaby spent 1747 days injured, which is equal to 314 matches and equates to nearly five years out injured.
During his time with the Gunners, Diaby was regarded as one of the most gifted midfielders around but his body simply wouldn’t allow him to play enough to substantiate those claims.
To make matters worse, Diaby suffered an ankle injury in the 05/06 season that led to eight months of rehabilitation after he underwent three surgeries.
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At the time, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said: “There was only one intention in this tackle – to hurt the player – and it’s a career-threatening tackle. I will take legal advice to see how far I can go.”
Diaby ranked top for most days unavailable, as well as number of matches missed. But in terms of number of injuries suffered, that title fell to Franck Ribery, who has suffered 72 injuries during his career.
Robben ranked second with a total of 1507 days on the sidelines, while Wilshere was third with 1470. Former Manchester City captain Kompany racked up 1419 days injured.
Current Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is one of four active Premier League players in the list, the Englishman has so far been injured for 1079 days and he is not expected back until after October.
Brazilian legend Ronaldo Nazario has been injured for 1324 days as he is eighth on the list, if it wasn’t for his injury problems, Ronaldo would have gone down as one of the best-ever strikers.
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Here is the full list below, which is broken down by three categories: days of unavailability, number of matches missed and number of injuries.
- Abou Diaby
- Arjen Robben
- Jack Wilshere
- Vincent Kompany
- Stefan Jovetic
- Thomas Vermaelen
- Franck Ribery
- Ronaldo Nazario
- Holger Badstuber
- Tomas Rosicky
- Giuseppe Rossi
- Phil Jones
- Marco Reus
- Danny Welbeck
- Mamadou Sakho
- Radamel Falcao
- Alex Oxlade Chamberlain
- Ibrahim Afellay
- Ilkay Gundogan
- Aaron Ramsey
Topics: Football, Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A, Bundesliga