No surprise: São Paulo top Brazil for injuries in last 10 years | OneFootball

If there were more than 70 absences in the year of their athletes, which caused a crisis in their medical department, being gradually restructured, São Paulo has had the serious problem of injuries in their squads for a long time.

The Tricolor is the Serie A club with the most injuries in national football over the last ten years, according to a survey published by Globo Esporte this Friday (26).

In the research period, between 2016 and 2025, São Paulo led the medical department absences in Brazil's elite with 483 injury cases over the last ten seasons, representing an average of 48.3 injuries per year. The closest was Grêmio, with 457 injuries.

The Tricolor has been trying to solve this problem for a long time. In 2020, they made changes to their health department, and in 2023 they dismissed the doctor and made significant changes to their Reffis, which was increasingly dealing with injured players.

When comparing the averages per season, however, São Paulo drops to 2nd place. Coritiba competed five times in Serie A with 243 medical absences, averaging 48.6 per year – 0.62% higher than the Tricolor's.

In the average recovery time of injuries for each team between 2016 and 2025, São Paulo ranked 12th, with an average of 37.17 days for players in the medical department.

Pablo was one of the most injured

Among the players who most visited the medical department in the last decade, the 3rd place is a forward who played for the Tricolor and left no fond memories. Pablo accumulated 24 injuries since 2016, also playing for Athletico-PR and Sport.

The research indicated that in these ten years, thigh injuries were the main reason athletes were sidelined from elite football throughout the season. “Sports medicine specialists explain that the high rate is directly linked to the demand on this muscle group in the game: the thigh is constantly overloaded in high-intensity actions, such as sprints, abrupt changes of direction, and shots,” published GE.

There were a total of 3,585 muscle problems in the thigh between 2016 and 2025. Knee injuries appear in 2nd place, with 1,290 occurrences. Ankle (875) and calf (498) injuries also stood out during the research period.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.