The staggering amount Man Utd and Chelsea have paid injured players over last three years

Over the last three years, Manchester United have spent a total of £89million in wages on injured players, a total that is eclipsed by just one Premier League rival – Chelsea.

Erik ten Hag has regularly blamed a lack of availability as one reason why the Red Devils continue to underperform, as they languish 13th in the table off the back of a 3-0 home defeat by Tottenham.

The Dutchman has been backed by INEOS and was given another £180m to spend on the likes of Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte and Matthijs de Ligt. But the teenage centre-back is yet to make his league debut due to injury, a frustrating situation the club are all too familiar with.

Research conducted by Footy Accumulators found that United spent £37.8m in wages to players who were unavailable to play last season. That figure was higher than the previous two years, where £25.3m (2021/22) and £25.7m (2022/23) was dished out to injured stars.

Ten Hag bemoaned a fitness crisis last season with the likes of Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez and Mason Mount all sidelined for large portions of the campaign. Tyrell Malacia missed the entire season with injury but has been back in training.

The money paid out to injured United players was eclipsed only by Chelsea and their bloated squad, with as much as £101m spent on wages for players that could not feature over the past three years.

A whopping £46m was paid to players just last season, a 12-month bill larger than the three-year totals of all clubs aside from United and Liverpool.

Wesley Fofana was reportedly paid just shy of £10m alone in 2023/24, despite not playing a single minute of football, proving to be an expensive outlay and increased Chelsea’s total spend on injured players to £46.4m. That figure was an increase on £34.7m in 2022/23 and £19.9m in 2021/22.

Liverpool ranked third across the three years with £54m paid out to injured players, followed by Newcastle (£44m) and Tottenham (£41m) to round out the top five.

Arsenal (£36m) were in sixth, followed by Aston Villa (£35.9m), Manchester City (£35.3m), Everton (£32m) and Brighton (£21m).

The team with the lowest spend who have been in the Premier League on each of the last three seasons is Wolves, where £12m was spent on injured players.

United and Chelsea will hope that their injury woes are behind them, however, as Enzo Maresca largely operates with a fully fit squad aside from the absence of captain Reece James.

United, however, have continued to be without Shaw despite his Euro 2024 excursions and £52m signing Yoro has been out since pre-season after undergoing surgery on a fractured fifth metatarsal.