Premier League injury expert on why Reece James can't recover and Newcastle's crisis
These are busy times when you are both the founder of and analyst at Premier Injuries - a website which has been described as a “leading data injury analyst." Yet, even with the current number of injuries to analyse, Ben Dinnery still found the time to talk to Tribal Football on some the topics worrying managers and fans of the Premier League.
Such as Mauricio Pocchetino, who will be missing James Reece yet again. This time it looks like a three-month spell on the sidelines and for Ben it all comes down to preparation during the off-season.
“We know the cornerstone of any player's season happens in the summer programme. The more sessions in that period, the more a player is able to cope with the physicalities of the Premier League.
"That was disrupted with Reece James. There was a little bit of a knee issue, he had a little bit of illness. There were also muscular problems," Dinnery explains of the Chelsea captain seemingly unable to reach a fundamental level of match fitness.
“It a vicious circle where he must perform, the games are coming quick and fast, and he's maybe not getting the opportunity to get the time away from Premier League football that he needs to fully recuperate.
"You can train as hard as possible, you can meet baseline pre-injury levels, play in friendlies, but the unique nature of the Premier League still makes it difficult. He hasn't been able to cope with the rigours of the Premier League up to this point," Dinnery states before pondering whether he ever will.
“There are so many factors that influence why players suffer injuries which makes it difficult to address some of the underlying problems. There's no sort of magic bullet that we can fire and suddenly everything is fixed.
"But it is possible, given time, we have seen it with other players," says Dinnery before touching on a potentially hot topic. James seemingly always returns before his body is prepared for it.
“He is one of those key players who everyone at the club wants out there. We need him to be helping us, you know?"
Last season, the personal trainer to Reece James, James Ralph, at one point was quoted as saying, “I need to bite my tongue despite having A LOT to say." So far, he has kept biting that tongue, while Dinnery has done a study at the beginning of the year on what sort of influence a shift in backroom staff possibly has on players.
“It is a study on what the effects are when you have a high turnover of managers and assorted staff. You're talking new training regimes, new structures, new rules, new philosophies, new demands, different styles of play, simply different all-round philosophies," Dinnery explains before revealing some of his findings.
“Particularly over the first couple of months, you may see an increase in the number of injuries to players. Not having a stable background environment is an issue. That's been proven in the data," Dinnery says, alluding to the fact the Boehly regime has gone from Thomas Tuchel to Graham Potter via Frank Lampard before settling, for now, on Mauricio Pochettino in little more than 12 months.
But what is the story with Newcastle then, as Eddie Howe and his team have now been a settled staff at St. James Park and yet they have found themselves down to the bare bones?
“People tend to look at the headline grabbers but scratching beneath the surface, only five of those injuries were muscle or soft tissue related such as hamstrings or groin, calf issues, those sorts of injuries.
"But you can't forget that football is a contact sport, you're going to pick up injuries. Jacob Murphy had a dislocated shoulder, Nick Pope as well, Sean Longstaff got his ankle caught in the studs," before offering the insight coming from a true reader of the underlying numbers.
“Believe it or not, when you look at the number of minutes played by Newcastle, and compare it with the same period last season, Newcastle had actually suffered 36% fewer injuries than over the same period last season based on injuries per 1,000 minutes played.
“So, when you factor in European football, the domestic cup, they've played so much more and then of course it also becomes a vicious circle. You are forced to take risks or deploy players in perhaps slightly different positions which, again, pushes the physicalities and the different demands on the body. Simply because you don't have the ability to rest and rotate a squad."
Recently Erling Haaland joined the list of casualties and even a team with an abundance of talent might feel the absence of their topscorer supremo. Even if only out for a short period, Dinnery believes Pep Guardiola will be very attentive to the fitness of his prime attacking weapon.
“Pep will be looking to wrap him up in cotton wool, particularly around this congested Christmas period. He will be looking at every opportunity he has to remove him from playing, just to give him that little bit of rest and additional recovery to try and protect him."