Why does Toronto FC have so many injuries?
As Toronto FC enters Week 12 of the 2023 MLS season, the number of injured players keeps growing.
Here’s an updated list from Thursday’s training session (once again, thanks to former Waking The Red managing editor Michael Singh).
So, what is actually going on with this team? Is it normal to see so many injuries at once due to the nature of the sport?
Here’s a few insights to the nature of football injuries (for clarification, the term “football” is being used, as “football” is the scientific nomenclature in these studies).
How common are injuries?
A study was conducted from 2001 to 2006 using UEFA Champions League and Swedish Superleague teams – Epidemiology of football injuries. The study found there were six to nine injuries per 1000 hours of total exposure – three to five injuries per 1000 training hours and 24 to 30 injuries per 1000 match hours. As expected, players are around five to six times more likely to become injured during a match than in training.
So, a team of 25 players can expect 40 to 50 injuries per season, or approximately two injuries per player per season. 50 percent of injuries will be minor, causing an absence of less than a week. A team can expect six to nine major injuries each season, causing an absence of more than four weeks.
What are the most common injuries?
According to “A prospective epidemiological study of injuries in four English professional football clubs”, here are the most common injuries:
Strains (pulling muscles/tendons) – 41%
Sprains (ligaments at Joints) – 39%
Contusions (Bruises to muscles and bones) – 20%
Where do these injuries happen?
Thigh – 23%
Ankle – 17%
Knee – 14%
Lower Leg – 13%
What causes injuries?
Football injuries can be caused by overtraining, poor conditioning, insufficient rest and recovery time, playing on hard surfaces or in unfavourable weather conditions, and collisions with other players. In particular, the high number of muscle strains points to possible flaws in fitness training programs, warm up and cool down procedures from the club.Injuries can also be caused by factors outside of the game, such as age, pre-existing medical conditions or accidents during training or in everyday life.
An article entitled “The effect of hyper-mobility on the incidence of injury in professional football” discusses the concept of joint hyper-mobility in relation to football injuries. In simple terms, hyper-mobility means joints are more flexible than they should be – or an abnormal range of motion. For instance, your elbow bends too far backwards and does not stop at 180 degrees. This idea becomes relevant due to two factors – age and previous injury. These factors may prevent adequate recovery, thus creating a greater risk for re-injury or the inability to recover from the injury at all.
Toronto FC Specific Statistics
With this information, how does Toronto FC’s injuries measure up to the expected injuries over the season so far? This information has been compiled from Game Notes available through Toronto FC.
Here’s what’s happened so far with TFC in the 2023 season:
Types of Injuries | |||||
Number of Matches | Number of Injuries | Median Number of Days Injured | Minor (7 Days or less) | Moderate (7-27 Days) | Major (28+ Days) |
12 | 21 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 6 |
A Champions League club plays, on average, 50 matches a year (in domestic and UEFA competitions). Here’s what the xINJ numbers would show – 50 percent minor injuries, nine major injuries (NOTE: Median Days Injured is not shown as there is no data set in the study):
Types of Injuries | ||||
Number of Matches | Number of Injuries | Minor (7 Days or less) | Moderate (7-27 Days) | Major (28+ Days) |
50 | 50 | 25 | 16 | 9 |
Here’s a comparison of the current TFC injury situation to the entire season from a Champions League Team (domestic and UEFA):
Types of Injuries | ||||
Number of Matches | Number of Injuries | Minor (7 Days or less) | Moderate (7-27 Days) | Major (28+ Days) |
12 | 21 | 10 | 5 | 6 |
24% | 42% | 40% | 31% | 67% |
Despite only having played roughly 1/4 of the matches of a Champions League club, TFC has already compiled 42 percent of the injuries for a whole season. Also, a troubling statistic is that Toronto FC has already had six major injuries, which falls within the lower range for the whole UCL club season, but is at 67% of the upper limit already.
Toronto FC is scheduled to play 37 matches this year, assuming they won’t advance in the Leagues Cup. Here is a comparison for a full season, which has been extrapolated from the 12 matches so far in 2023:
Types of Injuries | ||||
Number of Matches | Number of Injuries | Minor (7 Days or less) | Moderate (7-27 Days) | Major (28+ Days) |
37 | 65 | 32 | 15 | 19 |
74% | 130% | 128% | 94% | 211% |
If Toronto keeps up at this current rate, the team will suffer 65 injuries this season. The most concerning number is 19 major injuries, which means almost 20 instances of a player missing a month or more of the season.
On a roster of 25 players, that’s an average of 2.6 injuries per player for the season. With these troubling numbers emerging from the first third of the season, why is this situation plaguing Toronto?
Why so many injuries?
Incomplete Roster Construction – How many players were in the lineup on February 25th for the season opener against D.C. United? Surprisingly, there were 20 players dressed, but only two subs used in that match. Bob Bradley was forced to sub off Lorenzo Insigne in the 34th minute due to injury. Brandon Servania came on for Adama Diomande in the 77th minute.
While this match was the first of the season, it was clear that Bob Bradley did not have enough options coming off of the bench to make a difference. It was one of the recommendations in that week’s version of Anatomy of a Goal. He started the season without any preferred backups in the lineup. One of the biggest complaints from many supporters from the beginning of the season is the lack of depth in the midfield. Without any second options, players like Michael Bradley and Jonathan Osorio are forced to play a full 90 minutes. Incidentally, both players are out with long-term injuries right now.
Improper Load Management – One of the most telling numbers about Toronto FC’s squad is the median age of almost 30. Also, if you look at the current starting 11 for Toronto FC (when healthy), six out of 11 players are 30 or older. As those who are on the wrong side of 40 can attest, age plays a significant factor in recovery time from matches, let alone minor injuries.
There is little consideration for squad rotation, especially when the team has three matches in eight days. There are currently eight players out and one questionable for Saturday’s derby match in Montréal. That tally certainly does not indicate any type of adequate squad rotation or load management for the players. While most injuries are sustained in matches, there have been a few times where players have been injured in training and warm-ups.
Questions Surrounding the Medical/Physiotherapy Staff
Here are two examples that are quite telling regarding the players’ confidence in the medical/physiotherapy staff:
1) While there was little initial information regarding Michael Bradley’s injury, it was later discerned that Bradley was suffering from a hamstring injury. Bradley went to England this week to receive treatment on his hamstring.
2) Víctor Vázquez travelled back to Spain to consult with a doctor regarding his injured foot.
While these ideas seem like isolated incidents, sometimes it’s valuable to get a second opinion. Those who have followed Toronto FC for a few years are aware of some players’ dislike for the medical staff in Toronto. High profile players like Jermain Defoe, Jozy Altitore, and Sebastian Giovinco were not shy in voicing their concerns/displeasure with the staff. Defoe frequently flew back to England for treatment and Giovinco was often at odds with the medical staff. Giovinco was allowed to hire Guiseppe Gueli as an athletic trainer during his time in Toronto. Altidore brought Gueli back after Giovinco’s exit from TFC. The American forward also criticized the club’s handling of Michael Bradley’s ankle injury after the 2019 MLS Cup, saying it was “handled poorly” by the medical staff.
With some quick research at Google University, it appears some of the medical physiotherapy staff have been with Toronto FC for 10+ years. While Presidents, General Managers, and coaches come and go, it seems the medical staff is the only consistent factor in the team. Perhaps there needs to be a re-evaluation of the personnel and methods used to assess and treat Toronto FC players, as the data indicates too many injuries early on in the season.
With nearly 1/3 of the season completed, Toronto FC needs to start looking at alternative ways of approaching their matches. Moreover, nothing should be off of the treatment table at this point in the season.
Wow. This is a yikes.
Excellent fact based article. Thank you for demonstrating that TFC really are suffering more injuries than expected confirming what many of us believe.
Agreed re Manning (and Bradley). He should never have resigned Altidore or Michael B. Those two guys are giants who have a permanent place of reverence in the history of this franchise.
But re-signing, instead of selling, fading stars is how to lose, not how to win. That is an intro. to soccer given for real soccer team managers. Manning continues to be a disaster. Hard to see how the Reds will ever win again with an empty suit at the helm.
The Altidore signing was bad because it was too long, especially as a DP. Similarly with Bradley, the signing wasn’t bad at the time, dropping him to a TAM level player, the problem was once again length. Bradley still today as a high TAM player is the problem, having him on the team is not.
These, amongst other signing that Bezbetchenko and more so Ali Curtis left in their wake where the indicators of the downwards trend this team was about to embark on. These were all under Mannings watch and it is time for a true culture and mentality reset at this club. It’s time to move on from Manning and most of the things attached to him for this team to move forward in a positive manner.
MLSE has access to some of the best doctors, trainers, and athletic therapists, right here in Toronto. These are teams that have treated players from various pro sports teams from Toronto and beyond. The same team that dealt with Altidore and kept him healthy in the 2016-2017 run, also looked after Connor McDavid, and to a lesser degree due to covid restrictions and the team playing in the states, Bradley after his surgery post 2019 final. The same team deals with pro and high level amateur athletes all the time from Toronto and beyond. Yet TFC has players going overseas like we don’t have the resources here.
I am finally leaning more and more towards the opinion that the major issues with this team stem from the top down and that Bill Manning amongst many others needs to go. The decision making and results over the past 6 years or so have shown a consistent downwards trend. Yes they won in 2017, yes they made the finals of CONCACAF and 2019 MLS cup, but the issues with injuries, which probably cost them that Champions League title, and definitely cost them doing well the 2018 regular season, and affected their competitiveness in the 2019 final with how long it took Altidore to come back from injury, and their first round collapse in the 2020 playoffs, have been consistently bad for too long. The lack of succession planning have allowed this house of cards to fall over all too easily with multiple bad hirings and the refusal to change what has not been working behind the scenes.
I know this post is a bit rambling, but I hope I have somewhat conveyed my issues with this club as I reflect back on The current situation and what has happened in the past bunch of years.
One positive take-away from this miserable season, is that the games are now shown on Apple TV. Most Toronto fans don’t have access to Apple TV. When things are going well you should have the most eye balls possible watching the games. Given the disaster that is now TFC, it is better that the masses are not exposed to this disgusting S*#T Show.
I’ve been a season ticket holder since 2007.
I may be nearing the end of my patience.
MLSE Making Losing Seasons Easy