Darwin Nunez, if you believe certain reports, is set to be a Liverpool man but what type of player are we getting?
Many have quoted his goal return last season (34) and stats such as goals, assists and appearances are always easy to come by, but we’re looking a little closer into his injury record here.
Since arriving in Europe in 2019 with Almeria, the Uruguayan has faced some absences from the starting line-ups for his team and for a variety of reasons.
Season 2019/20 offered the now 22-year-old the opportunity to feature in 44 games. Nine of them saw him not feature in the squad and only two of those occasions were due to an injury. A further two were through suspension and the rest were down to the forward fighting to break his way into the matchday squad, from when he first signed for the club.
Season 2020/21 had the opportunity for 53 matches. Eight of these matches had the 6’1 striker out of the squad, three of these were because of coronavirus, one was because he was rested and the other four were through injury.
Last season handed the Penarol youth player the chance to play 55 times but also had the most absentee issues. 14 games were missed but still only six of them because of injury, mainly because of knee surgery completed in August.
The maths behind these numbers shows that, of a possible 152 games on offer (in which he scored 64 goals) – the attacker missed just 12 games through injury. That means that he has only been too injured to play in 8% of matches in the last three seasons.
There have been some opinions shared that Nunez has a poor injury record, probably by viewing the knee surgery last season, but this shows he has a great track record since stepping up to European football.
This deal still may not be completed but it’s good to see that we do have a chance of securing a very good player with an equally impressive injury history.