The young prospect who played for Chelsea but was plagued by numerous injuries carries a curious statistic.
Many sports careers have been cut short due to physical issues. In football, it is a phenomenon that, due to the demands of the schedule in recent seasons, has increased like never before seen throughout history.
Carney Chukwuemeka of Borussia Dortmund is one of those “glass players.” The English midfielder, recently naturalized as an Austrian, made his professional debut in mid-2021 with Aston Villa. Since May 19, Chukwuemeka has played a total of 97 games in senior categories.
Over nearly five years, the English midfielder has missed 44 matches due to physical ailments, among which stand out problems with his left knee, which have caused him to miss more than half (23) of the games.
Chukwuemeka’s ongoing physical issues have caused him to miss practically an entire season (44 games he has been unable to play due to injury). To make matters worse, there is a statistic about the Englishman that speaks clearly to his physical fragility: since his professional debut, he has never completed a 90-minute match.
Of the 97 games he has played since his debut with the Aston Villa first team, he has come off the bench in 79, while in the remaining 18, in which he has started, he has been substituted before the final whistle.
This streak, we recall, is limited to his appearances in senior categories. If we speak of youth categories, Chukwuemeka has completed matches. With the England under-19 and under-20 teams, the midfielder has 12 complete games.
This season, Chukwuemeka has played 1,012 minutes spread across 32 matches. In other words, he has played practically one-third of the total minutes that Borussia Dortmund has played this season.
That said, it seems the Englishman has regained some physical consistency: he has missed only two matches due to physical issues since returning to Dortmund at the start of the campaign, and four in total if we add times he was left out as a substitute.
Chukwuemeka, at 22, has earned nearly €40 million in combined transfer fees from his moves to Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund.
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