2025 became a year defined by prolonged recoveries and recurring setbacks for a run of leading players. Long absences and repeated rehabilitation programmes limited availability across several clubs and competitions.<\/p>\n
At Arsenal the season was hit by injuries to key forwards. Kai Havertz had never suffered a serious injury prior to a hamstring tear that sidelined him for three months at the end of last season. After playing in Arsenal\u2019s opening day victory over Manchester United, the 26-year-old was forced to undergo knee surgery and has been sidelined ever since, although a recent return to training has lifted spirits. Gabriel Jesus tore his ACL in January during an FA Cup clash with Man Utd and has only recently returned to be an option for the manager.<\/p>\n
Barcelona endured a troubled period in goal and defence. Marc-Andr\u00e9 ter Stegen returned in December but has been usurped as first-choice following the summer signing of Joan Garc\u00eda. Ter Stegen, briefly stripped of the captaincy amid his injury woes, played just five games for club and country in 2025 after missing the first four months of the year and a further four-and-a-half months at the start of the current campaign. Andreas Christensen missed the bulk of the calendar year through five separate fitness issues and a fresh injury in December will sideline him for a number of months.<\/p>\n
Bayern Munich saw several first-team players affected. Jamal Musiala missed the end of Bayern\u2019s title-winning campaign before a broken leg and ankle dislocation at the Club World Cup left him out until a recent return to team training. Alphonso Davies suffered an ACL tear in March and has only recently returned to action.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s Rom\u00e9o Lavia suffered five separate injuries during 2025 and has made just 11 appearances in the 2025\u201326 season to date, presently sidelined with a muscle strain. Manchester City\u2019s Rodri never got the chance to back up his 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or victory after an ACL injury kept him out until last May; a hamstring suffered at the Club World Cup has limited him to eight appearances since that tournament.<\/p>\n
Manchester United\u2019s Lisandro Mart\u00ednez missed over nine months after an ACL injury in February, returning in late November. Real Madrid endured recurring problems: \u00c9der Milit\u00e3o missed almost the entirety of last term through an ACL tear, has suffered two further muscle injuries this season and faces a return timeline until April 2026. Dani Carvajal has managed just eight appearances since the Club World Cup and is currently sidelined with a knee problem. David Alaba missed all of 2024 and has since been struck by four separate ailments, absent for 30 matches across the calendar year.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Neymar suffered six separate injuries for Santos and Brazil and required a knee operation in December, while Tottenham\u2019s Dejan Kulusevski missed eight months across 2025. The season underlined how quickly injury can derail momentum for top-level players and teams alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Top players who saw 2025 ruined by injury: lengthy absences, repeated setbacks and slow recoveries…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1017,1062,190,1056,1083,987,187],"tags":[1073,1064,1047],"class_list":["post-5574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-barcelona","category-bayern-munich","category-chelsea","category-man-city","category-man-utd","category-real-madrid","category-tottenham-hotspur","tag-acl-injury","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}