Should the Premier League adopt the NFL injury transparency rules?

“Let’s see what happens,” said Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta when asked about Martin Odegaard’s fitness before their game against Tottenham Hotspur.

Arsenal’s captain had picked up an injury playing for Norway during the international break and the timeframe of his return was unclear. It was only after the north London derby that the club revealed that he would actually be “out for a while” with an ankle ligament injury.

So was Odegaard ever really an option to play against Tottenham? Or did Arteta know that his involvement was always out of the question?

The watching world only had what Arteta offered in pre- and post-match press conferences to go on. Any lack of transparency may mislead or confuse fans, but a manager is under no obligation to provide real clarity in his media briefings. Over the years, countless managers have been deliberately unclear when it comes to player fitness and availability. Some have even done so to throw opposing teams ahead of a match.

It could not be more different in American football — NFL teams have to reveal the injuries their players have sustained. So will the Premier League ever insist upon that same level of transparency?

What is the NFL Personnel (Injury) Report Policy?

In the NFL, no injury can go under the radar.

The league “requires that teams provide credible, accurate, and specific information about injured players to the league office, their opponents, local and national media, and the league’s broadcast partners each week during the regular season and postseason”.

How? This is through a mixture of practice, game status and in-game injury reports.

Practice reports require teams to list all players’ level of participation: did not participate, limited participation and full participation. Limited participation is classed as anything less than 100 per cent of a player’s usual repetitions. They must highlight any reportable injuries during practices, basically anything that stops a player from finishing a game or their normal workload.

Three practice reports are required during a gameweek. For a Sunday game, this involves Wednesday, Thursday and Friday reports.

Game status reports, known as the injury report, use the terms questionable, doubtful and out (they previously removed probable). This has to be released by 4pm ET two days before a game, except for matches on Thursday — these are announced on Wednesday afternoons.

In-game injury reporting takes place “as soon as it is available”, through the broadcast partner, stadium screens and the wider media.

Teams must be as specific as possible when reporting injuries. They must specify right or left if discussing a quarterback’s arm or hand or a kicker’s leg or foot and it wouldn’t be described as a “leg” injury, but rather ankle, calf or whichever specific body part has been injured.

Find an example from the latest NFL gameweek here.

Any team that doesn’t follow these rules is subject to disciplinary action decided by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell which may include fines, suspensions or losing draft picks.

In 2019, the Pittsburgh Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin listed their quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as having missed one out of three practices in the week with rest, not related to an injury. Come gameday, he left before half-time after tearing three of five flexor tendons in his elbow which required season-ending surgery. This was brought to the NFL’s attention after some of his team-mates told the media they were aware of an elbow problem before the game. The Steelers were fined $75,000.

What are the problems with this system?

Full transparency is sometimes not achieved even with these rules.

In week one against the New York Jets, the San Francisco 49ers listed All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey as ‘questionable’ on the game status report two days before the fixture took place on a Saturday.

Yet, when McCaffrey’s replacement, Jordan Mason, was asked by ESPN’s Lisa Salters whether he knew he would be starting, he replied: “Maybe Friday. Friday night, something like that.” Mason gave the game away.

McCaffrey was publicly ruled out just an hour before kick-off. He still hasn’t played this season due to a calf injury and Achilles tendinitis.

McCaffrey’s availability was an issue early in the NFL season (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The NFL did not investigate. Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters after the game: “I never told Jordan he was going to start.

“I told him he had to be ready a bunch, but it might have been (running backs coach) Bobby [Turner] or somebody trying to pump him up. I told him that he was going to have to play a lot, it wasn’t going to be like usual.”

Asked the same question later, Mason said: “That question right there is why I’m mad, that’s why I don’t really like talking to the media, because you say one thing wrong and then you know. Just skip that question.”

Per the NFL: “We have looked into the 49ers’ reporting of the playing status of Christian McCaffrey for the team’s Monday night game against the New York Jets. We have found no evidence of a violation of the league’s Injury Report Policy in this matter.”

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 13, 2024

The labels of questionable and doubtful are still not certain and can be open to interpretation, leaving NFL teams with wiggle room.

Adding injury reports would also add an administrative burden on the Premier League clubs.

How could the Premier League benefit?

Compared to the NFL’s weekly public reporting, injury reports are provided by clubs to the Premier League just twice a year. Outside of this, injury news comes from the media or is confirmed via team sheets before matches.

The introduction of public and frequent injury reports means all teams would be on a level playing field when it comes to injury news. No mind games and in-house secrets could be used to a club’s advantage — in theory.

For fans, those going to stadiums would know the status of whether their favourite player will be appearing or not and misinformation would become a thing of the past. In the increasingly competitive Fantasy Premier League, managers would be able to make moves with more certainty.

It provides the same benefit with the bookmakers as it did when injury reports were introduced back in 1947 by then NFL commissioner Bert Bell, preventing people profiting from inside information.

“Because of their spies the big gambling houses may know (Sammy) Baugh is hurt and probably won’t be at his best if he plays at all,” said Bell in an interview with The Washington Star at the time. “But the public won’t know.

“The public may fall for prices that seem good but aren’t because of Baugh’s injury.”

On this date in 1947, the NFL began requiring teams to publicly announce all injuries that might prevent players from playing in the next game. pic.twitter.com/M378qcRvqv

— Quirky Research (@QuirkyResearch) July 15, 2024

Some people can still be better informed than the public injury reports through access to the team, so not all inside information is eliminated.

Amid debates on footballers’ workloads, it would lead to more transparency and clarity on injury occurrences and frequencies.

Rodri suffered serious injury against Arsenal (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

In Odegaard’s case, it would have been public information that he did not train in the week leading up to the north London derby and Arsenal would have had to rule him out as ‘out’ in a game status report. When he returns to training, this would also be clearly documented.

What did the Premier League say?

The Premier League did not comment. But a source at the league, kept anonymous as they did not have permission to speak, pointed out that they have met with the NFL before to discuss best practices in player health and safety but there remains no obligation or desire to make things public.

Behind the scenes, injury surveillance is in place across both first-team and academy sides to advise clubs of best practices.

In the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan, introduced in 2012 “with the aim of producing more and better homegrown players”, there is a ‘National Injury Surveillance Project’. The project is committed to stopping injuries to elite youth footballers within academies through understanding them better and trying to prevent them.

To do this, data is collected by their Performance Management Application (PMA) on injury incidence, type, location and severity for injuries occurring in both training and matches. It is then fed back to all clubs quarterly, consisting of all 20 Premier League clubs along with Category One (considered the top) academies.

(Top photo: Getty Images)