83 games missed: Is Kieran Tierney injury prone? | OneFootball

Kieran Tierney picked up another injury at the weekend that is set to keep him out for up to six weeks, and as I looked at his injury history, it was more than a little concerning, and it might be time to ask is Kieran Tierney injury prone?

When Arsenal signed Kieran Tierney from Celtic in 2019, he was suffering from a hip problem that kept him out longer than Celtic said it would.

That was our first clue there might be a problem.

Tierney has already missed 28 games prior to this injury, including six games from January 19, 2021, because of another knee problem.

While at Celtic, Tierney didn’t fair much better, although he didn’t suffer any knee problems.

He missed 55 games across four seasons meaning the 23-year-old has missed 83 games because of injury problems since the 16/17 season.

Kieran Tierney injury record

Number of games missed per injury:

That’s 83 games missed, at the time of writing, across five seasons. An average of 16.6 games per season, a number that will increase before the 20/21 season finishes now that Arsenal have confirmed the knee injury he picked up in Arsenal’s defeat to Liverpool will keep him out for most, if not all, of the remaining season.

I noted at the time of his transfer to Arsenal that he had a few issues that could be of concern to the player, although they centred around his osteitis pubis problem, which is an ‘uncommon cause of pain in the groin and pelvis,’ and it occurs ‘when there is inflammation of the pubic symphysis, the joint of the two major pelvic bones at the front of the pelvis.’

“The most important treatment for osteitis pubis is rest,” writes Very Well Health. “Because inflammation is the problem, the body needs the joint to rest in order to heal properly.”

Although this latest injury isn’t a hip or pubic problem, the one things Kieran Tierney definitely doesn’t get enough of is rest.

The only breaks he’s had with Arsenal have come when he’s been injured, the group stages of the Europa League, and the EFL Cup. Even with his country, Tierney plays all the time. Scotland had three games over the most recent international break and Tierney played 259 of the 270 minutes.

You can only push a human body so far before it will start giving you major problems. Despite all his issues, and only being 23, Tierney has played 229 matches for Celtic and Arsenal plus another 19 for Scotland.