MANCHESTER UNITED have paid out an eyewatering £105MILLION to injured and unavailable players over the last five seasons.
While boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s predecessor Jose Mourinho liked to whinge about transfers, the Red Devils actually pay enormous sums to their star players.
One problem, however, has been getting them all fit and healthy.
A study conducted by Bonusfinder revealed that United players have spent a combined 6,378 days injured, missing a total of 1,105 games in the process since 2016.
In this time, Paul Pogba, Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were costly absentees – while defenders Luke Shaw, Phil Jones and Eric Bailly have also spent their fair share of time on the treatment table.
Pogba, 28, missed most of last season with a troublesome ankle injury.
The Frenchman has been absent from 66 games injured over the last five years – during which time he was found to have earned over £16million.
Rojo, 31, was a figure barely seen in his latter days at Old Trafford, missing 124 games at a cost of nearly £10m.
Having played well during his first season at United, Zlatan suffered a devastating cruciate ligament injury, missing 46 games at a cost of almost £9m before leaving for LA Galaxy in January 2018.
Shaw, who has only recently returned to the England fold, missed nearly the entirety of the 2015-16 season with an awful leg break – and has continued to suffer with persistent injuries since – having lost out on 64 games at a cost of over £7m.
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Defensive duo Bailly and Jones have missed 199 matches between them, costing nearly a combined £12m.
Arsenal are second on the list, despite their players having missed more games than United’s.
Gunners players have missed 1,122 games during a total of 6,577 days on the treatment table – costing nearly £80m.
Their most-injured player in this period was the luckless Santi Cazorla, whose awful ankle injuries cost him 103 games over 618 days – and Arsenal £8.8m.
Third are Manchester City with a total of £73m and 779 games missed – with only Pogba having cost more during injury spells than Kevin De Bruyne at £11.5m.
Liverpool are narrowly fourth with a total £72.5m – having lost the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to serious injuries over the last few seasons.
West Ham round off the top five – followed by fellow London clubs Crystal Palace, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.
Everton and Newcastle United round off the top ten.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
