Injury prone players

[Matshit]

Has there ever been a real discussion about the injury prone-stat. Does it really “exist” in real life among professionaly trained footballers?

I think so called injury prone players can be divided into different subcategories that are not the way the injury prone-stat works today.

1) Players with a recurring injury. Someone like Owen Hargreaves for example. He had a bad knee that ended up bothering him again and again.

This doesn’t mean he has a bigger chance of breaking a leg, but just that he can’t get rid of that injury.

I have talked in depth about recurring injuries before, but I do think they should be handled better. I would like to see players get destroyed by one injury that keeps them out of play for years. Players with injuries the physio can’t find that just make them perform worse. Players getting the green light to play even if the injury is still there.

2) Players that is run into the team to quick, and doesn’t get the time to get into shape over and over. Like Mario Gomez at Fiorentina.

3) Players that just have been unlucky over a long period of time.

4) Players that are technically good, and end up being chopped down all the time.

5) Players with bad natural fitness that gives them strain injuries. There are not very many of those, and like with Ryan Giggs it can be improved with proper training. Basically meaning that this group is for players who don’t focus correctly in training and without proper physical training.

In the game all of those are put together, and instead of a logical “narrative” you end up with a lof of players with completely separate injury problem, and there is nothing you can do to fix it. It just feels arcadish to me.

[samdiatmh]

I think it's more likely to be #3 of your explanations (in that they pick up small niggles frequently)

2 sounds like stamina to me

4 is (wait for it) natural fitness

and basically the difference between 5 and 1 is that the players in 5 would be low injury prone, so they'd pick up bad injuries, but they'd be a rare occurence

that's just how I see it, but I'd like some official word

[Northernpilgrim]

I give you Darren Anderton as an example from 'real life'

[thomit]

Players can have a playing style that "asks" for them to be chopped down more frequently, thus getting injuries more often. Jack Wilshere is an example of this, probably. Currently, FM lumps all, whatever the reason for being injury prone into the same stew, I agree with that. And it could be made more sophisticated, sure. But on the list of things to fix ... it's a bit down on the list, isn't it? At the end of the day, the reason why a player is injury prone is of less importance - the end result is the same, and is what matters. If a player has a specific recurring injury, but the game gives him different injuries every time because the game does not see the difference - is that a big issue? Just pretend that it is his recurring injury, if that helps.