The 20 most injured players in football history have been revealed, and seven of them played for Arsenal

Former Arsenal player Abou Diaby has been named the most injured player in football history, according to a list posted on Reddit, with the Gunners having seven former players feature on the list in total.

Joining Diaby on the list were Jack Wilshere, Thomas Vermaelen, Tomas Rosicky, Danny Welbeck, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey with data from Pop Foot illustrating the true extent of Arsenal’s injury problems down the years.

Many other players on the list had a spell in the Premier League, with the likes of Arjen Robben and Vincent Kompany also joining Diaby as the top four. 

With a total of 21 injuries, Frenchman Diaby spent 1747 days injured, which is equal to 314 matches and equates to nearly five years out injured. 

During his time with the Gunners, Diaby was regarded as one of the most gifted midfielders around but his body simply wouldn’t allow him to play enough to substantiate those claims.

To make matters worse, Diaby suffered an ankle injury in the 05/06 season that led to eight months of rehabilitation after he underwent three surgeries. 

At the time, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said: “There was only one intention in this tackle – to hurt the player – and it’s a career-threatening tackle. I will take legal advice to see how far I can go.”

Diaby ranked top for most days unavailable, as well as number of matches missed. But in terms of number of injuries suffered, that title fell to Franck Ribery, who has suffered 72 injuries during his career.

Robben ranked second with a total of 1507 days on the sidelines, while Wilshere was third with 1470. Former Manchester City captain Kompany racked up 1419 days injured. 

Current Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is one of four active Premier League players in the list, the Englishman has so far been injured for 1079 days and he is not expected back until after October. 

Brazilian legend Ronaldo Nazario has been injured for 1324 days as he is eighth on the list, if it wasn’t for his injury problems, Ronaldo would have gone down as one of the best-ever strikers.

Here is the full list below, which is broken down by three categories: days of unavailability, number of matches missed and number of injuries.

1. Abou Diaby 
2. Arjen Robben
3. Jack Wilshere
4. Vincent Kompany
5. Stefan Jovetic
6. Thomas Vermaelen
7. Franck Ribery 
8. Ronaldo Nazario 
9. Holger Badstuber
10. Tomas Rosicky 
11. Giuseppe Rossi
12. Phil Jones
13. Marco Reus
14. Danny Welbeck
15. Mamadou Sakho
16. Radamel Falcao
17. Alex Oxlade Chamberlain
18. Ibrahim Afellay 
19. Ilkay Gundogan 
20. Aaron Ramsey 

Juan Mata says his winner at Wolves, and every goal he scores from now own, will be dedicated to his late mother, Marta Garcia, who very sadly passed away recently.Our no.8 responded to his penalty strike at Molineux by pointing to the sky and blowing a kiss, and he talked afterwards about the obvious emotion behind the goal.

“I have had the most difficult season in my life, for sure. I wanted to score for my mother and, thankfully, I did it,”

 he explained. 

“So this goal, and every goal that I score from now on, is going to be for her.”

Mata had a lengthy wait before he could take aim from the spot when VAR intervened and suggested referee Mike Dean check the pitchside monitor after Donny van de Beek was felled by Romain Saiss. And Juan had a message for our regular penalty-taker, his good friend Bruno Fernandes.

“They took a long time to check it,”

 he said. 

“On the pitch, I felt it was a penalty, but they took their time.

”

It’s never easy when you have to wait, but, fortunately, it was a good pen. The goalkeeper went to the other side… Bruno [had] better watch out now! [Smiles]

“ 

https://mobile.twitter.com/juanmata8/status/1396525309357395973/photo/2

Six FC Kallon lads set to represent Sierra Leone in the coming U15 Zone 2 Tourney to be hosted in Guinea. Striker Richmond A Kamara, defensive midfielder Alhaji Ali Conteh, right wing-back Unisa Conteh, Attacking midfielders Emmanuel Combay and Abass Dura Bangura, and goalkeeper Alfred Jones are the FC Kallon players that will make the trip with the Sierra Leone national U15 team to Guinea for the Zone 2 event. The three lads joined FC Kallon two years ago at the U12 stage. Three months ago, they were promoted to the U14 team of FC Kallon where they are presently playing. As a result of their high potentials and their spectacular performances during training sessions of the team, the experienced U15 Head Coach Abu 'Magic' Sankoh was left with no option but to add them to his game plan for the U15 competition in Guinea. FC Kallon Technical Director, Musa Kallon expressed his delight at the recent positive outcome when making his statement. "As a club we will continue to promote the development pathway of the players from all the categories, both for the club and the country as a whole. This is as a result of the implementation of the development project set by the CEO, Mohamed Kallon, a decade ago" he concluded proudly. Sierra Leone are set to play two matches with the first being against Senegal on the Friday 21st May 2021. Speaking to Mata, the Head Coach of FC Kallon U14 team, he showed optimism and confidence in her boys "All the players selected deserve their call up and I am hopeful that the lads will make Sierra Leone, FC Kallon and their families proud in their debut major tournament for their beloved country.

The Sierra Leone Football Association has proposed dates for the pending African Cup of Nations qualifying match between Sierra Leone and Benin. 

The proposed dates are the 12, 13 and 14 June respectively.

SLFA sent the proposed dates on May 11 when asked by CAF to do a ‘Full Inspection’ of the Siaka Steven Stadium. 

The proposed dates and venue are however subject to CAF’s approval. 

The match between Leon Star and Benin was canceled ahead of kick-off in Freetown after five Benin players received news they had tested positive for Covid-19 and would not be allowed to play.