Premier League players could be 25% more susceptible to injury when football resumes because of the intense schedule, research shows.

According to research conducted by artificial intelligence platform Zone7, which specialises in injury risk forecasting and works with 35 professional football teams worldwide, shows that playing eight matches in a 30-day period increases the incidence of injury by 25% when compared with playing four to five matches in the same timeframe.

The BBC reports at eight matches in 30 days may seem a regular occurrence but only 4% of players across a season are subjected to such a run of games.

It ads that it’s  not just the congestion of the fixture list that poses a concern, but the time provided for teams to transition from individual, socially distanced training to higher-intensity group training.

The Bundesliga was only officially given the go-ahead to recommence on 7 May, just nine days before the first fixture kicked off. Eight players picked up injuries in the six games on 16 May – a rate well above normal.

Based on Project Restart’s provisional return date of 20 June, Manchester City players could face 13 games in 49 days.

ClaretandHugh says: So just as David Moyes has predicted along with Kevin De Bruyne and others way back, the stats show the risks being run by the clubs and players in returning the squads back to work too quickly. The PL via its chief executive Richard Masters has made it clear that they are flexible on a date for the return of the game yet still there is no decision. It’s been known for some time that June 1 is a critical date but in relaxing restrictions next month the Prime Minister made it clear shops generally wouldn’t be open until the 16th. I do hope he and the government doesn’t believe that playing football is a more important consideration and allows it to go ahead before that when people’s individual livelihoods are surely of greater importance. The players aren’t being considered in any of this it seems to us unless the League and chairmen vote to restart the game at the end of the month.