As the saying goes, there are two types of players in the world of football: those who are immune to injury and those who are prone to injury. The first type is represented by Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes, as the Portuguese midfielder has not missed a single game due to injury since moving to the Premier League.
With the second type of factors, Neymar is one of the most injured players. Although no one denies Neymar's talent, like many other cases, the Brazilian player is so prone to injuries that his career never meets the expectations set before him.
This begs the question, is sport all about skill or is there also an element of luck involved? There are many players who have managed to reach the top, but have had their time on the pitch limited due to injuries.
PopFoot, combined with Transfermarkt's stats, has come up with a list of the unluckiest footballers when it comes to injuries, as of September 2024.
At the top of the pile is former Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby. Touted as Patrick Vieira's rightful successor when he arrived in North London, the Frenchman has never quite lived up to expectations. But that's not entirely his fault.
Diaby spent a total of 1,747 days out of action, missing 314 games due to 21 different injuries. No one was unluckier than Diaby. The man who changed his career was Sunderland's Dan Smith, whose play will never be forgotten, especially in the eyes of Arsene Wenger, who threatened legal action in his subsequent statement.
Like Diaby, most of the Top 12 on this list have retired, with only Marco Reus and Neymar still playing, but not in Europe's top leagues. Reus moved to the US to play for LA Galaxy, while Neymar plays for Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia.
In terms of the number of different injuries, Reus (69) is second only to Frank Ribery (72). Neymar, with 38 injuries, is also in the top group - only 3 players less.
Neymar is ranked 12th, but with the current situation, his stats will continue to increase. In the near future, in a few days he will take 11th place from Tomas Rosicky in terms of days off and move up to Arjen Robben in terms of games missed.
Current Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany is in the Top 5 with the most injuries.
The most unfortunate and serious injury was of course that of "Alien" Ronaldo, when with only 8 injuries in his career, the Brazilian legend had to rest for 1,324 days and 159 matches.
