Alexis Sanchez’s terrible injury record since joining Manchester United is set to continue, after the winger appeared to pull his hamstring on international duty.
Sanchez only really had one major injury with Arsenal, missing a couple of months of the 2015/16 season with a hamstring issue. The Chilean also missed two weeks of football in 2017/18 with an abdominal strain, for a combined total of 67 days injured.
This season with Manchester United has been a completely different story. The winger had four separate injuries during the 2018/19 campaign alone, listed below (via Transfermarkt):
- Hamstring injury – 32 days
- Thigh problems – 13 days
- Knee injury – 43 days
- Ankle injury – 36 days
That’s 124 days already, and Sanchez has now seemingly picked up another hamstring injury in Chile’s Copa America third-place playoff. The 30-year-old had to come off in the first half, although it’s not officially confirmed as a hamstring problem just yet.
There were quite a few people who predicted this before Sanchez even left Arsenal. The winger didn’t have a single break during his time in North London, and it seemed only a matter of time before injuries took hold.
To emphasise the point, here’s Sanchez’s schedule during his spell with the Gunners:
- Summer 2014: World Cup
- 2014/15: 52 appearances
- Summer 2015: Copa America
- 2015/16: 41 appearances
- Summer 2016: Copa America Centenario
- 2016/17: 51 appearances
- Summer 2017: Confederations Cup
- 2017/18: 22 appearances before January departure
The former Gunner didn’t have one summer off, and hardly missed any club games other than through his two injuries. That was always going to catch up to him at some point, and unfortunately for Manchester United, it seems that time is now.