Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) Chief Executive Adam Vivian has today called for further efforts to be made to reduce the incidence of injury in the A-League as the PFA releases the findings of its Injury Report for the first 17 rounds of this season.
Complied via publicly available data the PFA A-League Injury Report shows a decrease in both the number of injuries sustained by players and games missed as a result of injury compared to last season’s totals, and once again highlights the financial toll injuries take on clubs.
With injuries having cost clubs in excess of $2million so far this season, the report shows that 355 games have been missed as a result of injury.
Having recorded a spike of 704 games missed through injury last campaign, the opening 17 rounds of the 2014/15 season has the A-League tracking to record a total of 563 games missed as a result of injury.
Of the ten A-League clubs Adelaide United recorded both the highest number of injury and games missed due to injury, followed by the Brisbane Roar and Melbourne City, with all three on track to exceed last season’s totals.
Recording just five injuries and 10 games missed due to injury, the Wellington Phoenix were followed by the Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Victory as recording the lowest rate of injury and games missed as a result.
Whilst pleased to report a decrease on last season’s totals, PFA Chief Executive Adam Vivian said the incidence of injury remained too high and that it was time to introduce additional measures to ensure the health and safety of the players.
“The PFA A-League Injury Report has continually highlighted the effectiveness of the A-League Minimum Medical Standards in reducing the incidence of injury since their inception,” said Vivian.
“However, if we are to ensure more of our players are available for their clubs week-in-week-out the time has come to introduce additional measures.
“On numerous times throughout this season we have seen clubs unable to call on up to five players of their first team squad.
“The PFA and the players have signaled their intention to assist clubs in improving in this area, however to date the players remain frustrated in their attempts to do so, despite the heavy losses the clubs face due to injury.
“The effect of the mid-season break for the Asian Cup requires further investigation, as with an ever increasing workload and the additional matches attributed to the international match calendar for A-League based Socceroos, this could prove to be an effective means of providing clubs with an extended period to assist players in overcoming injury and fatigue.
“The PFA and the players remain committed to pursuing significant improvements in the area of injury prevention and recovery, as this is in best interests of all of the game stakeholders.”
A-League Clubs in Snapshot for 2014/15
| Club | #of injuries | #of games missed | % of HAL injuries | % of HAL Games Missed |
| ADU | 15 | 51 | 16.3 | 14.37 |
| BR | 11 | 48 | 11.97 | 13.52 |
| CCM | 6 | 22 | 6.52 | 6.2 |
| MCFC | 13 | 45 | 14.13 | 12.68 |
| MVFC | 8 | 28 | 8.7 | 7.89 |
| NJ | 10 | 44 | 10.87 | 12.39 |
| PG | 9 | 36 | 9.78 | 10.14 |
| SPC | 8 | 44 | 8.7 | 12.39 |
| WPX | 5 | 10 | 5.43 | 2.82 |
| WSW | 7 | 27 | 7.6 | 7.6 |
| TOTAL | 92 | 355 | 100% | 100% |
For media enquiries contact PFA Media and Communications Manager Beau Busch on +61 (0) 432763485 or via beau@pfa.net.au.
