Where Newcastle now rank for injuries in the Premier League this season is a huge improvement

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Newcastle United suffered their fair share of injuries last season.

Indeed, the crisis at Newcastle got so bad that pundit Joe Cole claimed it simply couldn’t just be a coincidence.

Eddie Howe was consistently without a clutch of key players and had to name a bench full of youngsters for much of the campaign, such were the lack of recognisable first-team options.

While the issues have not yet got quite that bad this season, problems remain. The Newcastle United manager has been without Sven Botman, Jamaal Lascelles and Callum Wilson for the entirety of the season so far, while Lewis Miley is only just returning.

Emil Krafth has just been ruled out for around eight weeks, too.

Still, according to figures released by Sky Sports, things ARE improving for Newcastle on the injury front…

Where Newcastle now rank in the Premier League for injuries this season

Last season, Newcastle suffered 41 separate instances of injury, as per BBC Sport. That proved the third-highest rate of the season and behind only Manchester United and Chelsea.

In total, the injured players combined to miss a total of 1,950 days – the most in the Premier League.

Luckily, however, the Sky Sports figures (which are cited from Premier Injuries data) paint a more positive picture.

They reveal that Newcastle have so far suffered seven separate instances of injuries, which sees them rank joint-eleventh with Manchester United.

In terms of days missed through injury, the players have missed a combined 142 days of action – which is the fifth-lowest in the Premier League.

Why Newcastle’s luck is now changing with injuries

Clearly, we remain at a relatively early stage of the campaign, so its important not to get too carried away with ourselves.

The reduced schedule in terms of having no European football to play has no doubt helped but the appointment of James Bunce as performance director cannot be ignored.

Upon his arrival, Bunce said of his role (via The Chronicle): “My role will be to ensure that we push in every area of performance and medicine to optimise the health, fitness and wellbeing of players, ultimately ensuring they are available to perform at the highest level, week in week out.”

Speaking back in September, Howe hailed the work Bunce has been doing to help manage the fitness of the players all while working on their conditioning.

“James is working really well I have to say,” said Howe to the Shields Gazette.

“He’s been hugely impressive since he has come in. He’s very passionate and hard working. Involved from the very start from the planning phase of training to the execution. He gives us really detailed analysis afterwards as well.

“I think he’s been a great addition to the team. Yeah I’ve been very impressed.”