WHEN it comes to injuries, every Premiership manager thinks they are the hardest done by.

Graeme Souness has spent most of this season asking to be judged when his "big heads" return to the team. Mick McCarthy has cited the absence of the likes of George McCartney, Julio Arca and Kevin Kyle as key factors in Sunderland's slump, while Steve McClaren is only too aware of how much Middlesbrough have missed Stewart Downing during his enforced absence.

In the past, though, the extent of a club's injuries has been a matter of conjecture and speculation. Not any more.

A leading physiotherapy website, physioroom.com, has produced an analysis of all injuries suffered by Premiership players in the course of last season. The results make for interesting reading.

McClaren, in particular, will be buoyed by their findings. Last season, Middlesbrough recorded the highest Premierhip finish in their history. Significantly, they did it despite the highest injury rate in the top-flight.

Boro's players lost a massive 1,731 days to injury last season, some 120 more than their nearest rivals, Tottenham.

As if that was not bad enough, a significant number of those injuries involved established first-team stars. Gaizka Mendieta, Mark Viduka, Joseph Desire Job, George Boateng, Ugo Ehiogu and Malcolm Christie all spent more than three months on the sidelines as Boro's squad was stretched to its limits.

Yet, while McClaren will be understandably concerned at his club's high injury rate, he will be comforted to learn that a high proportion of the ailments were non-muscular, and thus largely unavoidable.

Christie fractured both his foot and his leg last term, injuries that are almost impossible to guard against. Boateng's broken toe was a similarly freak occurrence, while Mendieta's cruciate ligament problem came totally out of the blue.

From a physiotherapy point of view, it is muscular problems which are most alarming. Injuries such as hamstring strains or groin pulls do not keep players on the sidelines as long as a broken bones, but they are generally easier to guard against and thus should be more simple to avoid.

And, when it comes to muscular problems, no-one suffers more than Newcastle. The Magpies lost 655 days to muscle injuries last season, almost 200 more than their nearest rivals, Fulham.

Patrick Kluivert, Kieron Dyer and Nicky Butt were amongst the seven sufferers from hamstring problems - more than any of their Premiership opponents - while 15 separate muscle injuries kept players on the sidelines for two weeks or longer.

Things have not been much better this season, with Dyer, Emre, Michael Owen, Albert Luque and Craig Moore all having suffered hamstring strains in the first four months of this campaign.

The challenge for Souness and his medical staff, of course, is how to address the issue and the Scot has already made changes in an attempt to turn the tide.

According to a group of leading physiotherapists, major risk factors for muscle injury include "the level of competition in relation to the player's skill, the playing surface, climatic conditions, training methods and an unrealistic playing schedule".

Earlier this season, Souness moved Newcastle's training ground to the club's Academy, claiming the previous playing surface was "too hard" and that "while the pitches we have today look fantastic, they are not user-friendly".

He has also sought to address the "unrealistic playing schedule" by refusing to rush players back into action once they have recovered from a muscle problem.

When Newcastle travelled to Chelsea, Souness claimed that both Owen and Alan Shearer could have played "had the game been a cup final". Significantly, neither made an appearance at Stamford Bridge.

Whether or not that will do the trick remains to be seen. But, whatever happens between now and the end of the season, neither Middlesbrough nor Newcastle will want to top their respective injury tables for a second season in a row.

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