EPL Power Rankings: Top 10 Most Injury-Prone Current Players

We've all had 'em—the great player who would make the world of difference to our teams, if only they could stay fit.

Two games scoring or setting up goals, producing man-of-the-match displays, and then back onto the treatment table for another couple of weeks.

Annoying, frustrating, sickening—especially when it happens the week before a big derby match, or before an important cup game.

Over the years, certain players seemed to have suffered with injuries more often than others. Here are the top 10 of the current Premier League era.

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Honourable Mentions

First up: those players who have had their day already, the players who missed out on many more appearances than they managed to get, all because their bodies just couldn't hack playing week in and week out.

Darren Anderton: "Sicknote," as he was known, was Tottenham's perennially injured midfielder who amassed one shy of 300 league appearances for Spurs in a 12-year spell at the club. His injury troubles started after an impressive three initial seasons—thereafter he only managed more than 23 league games in a season twice in nine years, five seasons of which he played only 20 games or less.

Anderton also amassed 30 caps for England, including playing at Euro 96 and World Cup 98.

Jamie Redknapp: Son of current Spurs manager Harry, Jamie won the League Cup with Liverpool in 1995 against Bolton Wanderers and was part of the Reds squad which won the League, FA and UEFA Cups in 2001—but he missed all three finals, and indeed the entire season, through injury. A talented passer of the ball from the centre of midfield, Redknapp would have been key for club and country for a number of seasons but for his horrendous run of injuries during the late '90s and early '00s. He managed a large number of matches in 1994-95 but racked up 30 league games or more during a season on only one further occasion in '98-99, despite playing until 2005.

Redknapp won 17 caps for England including a short substitute appearance at Euro 96 but was ruled out of World Cup '98 and Euro 2000, through injury, of course.

Owen Hargreaves: There can be little doubt that Hargreaves would have featured highly on this list had he not recently left Manchester United and not managed to find another club yet. Although, Premiership outfit West Brom, as well as Championship side Leicester City, are both said to be interested in signing him.

The Canadian-born Englishman signed for the Red Devils in 2007 and made 23 league appearances in his debut season but was restricted to a mere two games the following season. After that, things only got worse for Hargreaves, who missed 113 consecutive games over 20 months before his next, very brief, cameo substitute appearance. That single substitute game was his only contribution to his third campaign at Manchester United, while his fourth and final season also saw a solitary appearance—he started a game against Wolves and lasted five minutes before succumbing to injury.

Hargreaves has won 42 England caps, featuring at World Cup 2002, Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006.

Duncan Ferguson: formerly of Everton and Newcastle United, was another incredibly reliable player—that is, if you were expecting him to get injured. In his 10 years of playing for Everton, either side of a stint in the North East, he managed to break the 30-league games barrier just twice due to a succession of injuries. Fans of rival team Liverpool labelled the Scottish thug Ferguson "Tampon," on account of his regularity in the starting 11—one week in and three weeks out.

10: Michael Essien, Chelsea

A great player to kick things off on the top 10 countdown, but Michael Essien, Chelsea's Ghanaian midfield enforcer, will play no part in the first half of the season under new boss Andre Villas-Boas.

For the third time in recent seasons, Essien has run into long-term knee trouble; just last week he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligaments and will miss the opening six months of the 2011-12 season.

Essien had a good record at previous club Lyon and during his first two years at Chelsea, but since 2007 he has endured several injury-broken campaigns, making just 11 league appearances in '08-09 and 14 in '09-10. Last season he improved to make 33 last year but will miss over half of next season even if he returns on schedule.

9: Tomas Rosicky, Arsenal

Czech Republic playmaker Tomas Rosicky has played relatively few games for Arsenal since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2006. In fact, he averages just 18 league appearances per season for the Gunners, making 90 over five years.

In 2008-09, Rosicky missed the entire campaign due to a hamstring tendon injury which ruled him out for a total of 18 months, after which he also picked up a succession of niggling hamstring and other muscle injuries.

Rosicky also missed the end of last season with another spate of injuries.

8: Fabio Aurelio, Liverpool

Another talented but injury-prone player, Fabio Aurelio has been at Liverpool for five seasons and has been signed for the club by two different managers.

After joining from Valencia on a free transfer, Aurelio was in and out of the side during his first season, 2006-07, due to muscle injuries and struggling to work his way into the starting 11. In April of that campaign, he picked up an Achilles tendon injury and missed the rest of the season and the beginning of the next.

2008-09 was Aurelio's best season to date in terms of appearances and he established himself as the regular left back of Liverpool's side—until April again, when he tore an adductor muscle and again missed the remainder of the campaign. That summer after recuperating from injury, Aurelio injured himself again playing football on the beach with his children!

Further Achilles and hamstring injuries beset Aurelio during the previous campaign and to date he has played just 85 times for Liverpool in the league—an average of just 17 a season—and has only managed to hit 20 league appearances once during his time at Anfield.

7: Michael Owen, Manchester United

A story of what could have been is Michael Owen's career; right from the start he was plagued with back and hamstring trouble as a teenage striker at Liverpool, and his injury troubles have followed him throughout his career with England, Newcastle United and Manchester United.

In 1998-99, his hamstring injuries started to hit, recurring frequently enough towards the end of the campaign to prematurely end his involvement for the Reds. The following season followed a similar pattern and Owen was at one time in danger of missing Euro 2000 through injury. In '03-04, Owen also missed several games through injury, though up until this point he had still fared well in terms of games played in comparison to previous names on the list.

His one season at Real Madrid was relatively injury free but the next year he returned to England with Newcastle, where he promptly got injured in preseason. Next up was a metatarsal injury, needing an operation to pin the bone, and following that a second operation was decided upon to ensure Owen was ready for the World Cup in 2006. He made just one substitute appearance for the Magpies before the tournament, making a total of just 11 league games in his debut season.

However, in the World Cup, Owen ruptured his cruciate knee ligament and was out of action for almost a year; he managed just three games for Newcastle in '06-07.

Concussion, mumps, thigh injuries and hernia operations dogged the rest of Owen's time at Newcastle, and since he joined Manchester United his luck has not changed much. He lasted less than half the match in the 2010 League Cup final before he had to be subbed, eventually requiring surgery again as a result of the injury. Owen has continually been niggled by injuries during his career and has not managed to play 30 Premiership games in one season since 2002-03.

6: Chris Kirkland, Wigan Athletic

I'll be honest here, Chris Kirkland would have figured higher in the list if it wasn't for the fact he is a goalkeeper and therefore perhaps slightly more likely to get knocked every time the ball goes into his area.

He is surely one of the players with the lowest tolerance for pain or knocks to have graced the Premier League and has suffered an admirably wide range of injuries.

Once the most expensive British goalkeeper of all time, Kirkland made 14 consecutive starts for Liverpool when given his chance but then got an ankle injury in January 2003 which was the beginning of the end for him. Kirkland was out for the remainder of that season and the next one around was worse, as he suffered leg, back and head injuries and played just six times in the league. Kirkland played in the 2004-05 Champions League for Liverpool during the group stage, but missed the entire knock-out phase—including the final which the Reds won—through injury.

Kirkland spent the following two campaigns on loan to West Brom and Wigan, both of which he started off as first choice and lost his place through injuries and poor form.

Two successful campaigns in '08-09 and '09-10 briefly threatened Kirkland's place on this prestigious list, but a dislocated finger, amongst other minor injuries, have helped him keep his place—unlike in the Wigan goal.

Last season saw Kirkland usurped by Omani stopper Ali Al-Habsi, so the English 'keeper went on loan to Championship side Leicester City—until, of course, a back injury prevented him from playing any further part. With Al-Habsi only on loan from his club Bolton, Kirkland was given a final chance to make the Wigan goalkeeping position his own against the Trotters, but he was stretchered off injured, again, after colliding with Bolton forward Johan Elmander.

5: Daniel Agger, Liverpool

Fit and on form, Daniel Agger is one of the finest defenders in the entire Premier League. The trouble is, he is fit so infrequently that he has been unable to really stamp his authority on a regular place in the Liverpool side.

Since arriving from Brondby in Denmark five and a half seasons ago, Agger has played 93 league games for the Reds, around 17 per season on average. Indeed, he has only made it to 20 in a single season on two occasions. Agger took several knocks during his first half-season on Merseyside, amassing just four league games in the process, though the next campaign he played 27 games and his problems looked largely behind him.

2007-08 was a problem season though. Agger broke his metatarsal and later had to have an operation, ruling him out of the whole season in which he played just five league matches. Agger also had to have surgery on a back injury in 2009 and last season suffered concussion and leg injuries meaning he missed most of the first half of the season. The Dane recovered to play a part in Liverpool's revival but again succumbed to injury in March, after which he missed the rest of the season.

4: Ledley King, Tottenham Hotspur

I don't think much can be added to what has already been said about Ledley King's knees; the only reason he doesn't figure higher on the list is because it is more of a single continuing, non-improving situation rather than a succession of injuries which prohibit King playing more.

The Spurs defender has played a whopping 54 league games in the past FOUR seasons combined due to ongoing knee issues which prevent him playing two matches in a week or even training properly in between matches.

In 2004-05, King played the full 90 in all 38 of Tottenham's Premier League matches but since then has not managed more than 26 in a single campaign.

Aside from his troublesome knees, King has also broken his foot twice, severely damaged his hip, fractured a bone in his foot and had issues with groin strains.

Last season King played just six league games for Spurs, while in '08-09 he played just four.

3: Robin Van Persie, Arsenal

Without a shadow of a doubt the most in-form player over the last months of the 2010-11 season, Robin van Persie has been a habitual resident of Arsenal's physio room since joining from Feyenoord in 2004.

A class act of a player with a lethal left foot, one has to wonder if Arsenal would still have been in the midst of a six-year spell without trophies if van Persie had been fit enough to play regularly over the course of a whole season?

However, he has not. Indeed, in his SEVEN seasons at the club he has yet to play more than 28 league games in a single campaign, and in '07-08 and '09-10 he featured in less than half of Arsenal's league games, playing 15 and 16 games respectively.

But has he now overcome his injury problems?

Van Persie was ruled out of action early on last season with an ankle injury and did not return to score his first goal of the season until New Year's Day. From then on, however, he netted goals with an impressive regularity, though he did go off injured in the League Cup final and missed the first leg of the Champions League showdown with Barcelona through injury.

Earlier in his Arsenal career, van Persie suffered a broken toe, fractured foot, recurrent knee injuries and an ankle injury which kept him out for five months in 2009-10.

2: Jonathan Woodgate, Stoke City

Jonathan Woodgate almost didn't make the list, as he left Spurs after his contract expired, but Stoke have completed the signing of the former England defender in a move which is equally risky and inspired.

For years, Woodgate has threatened to be one of the best defenders in the country, only to find his progress curtailed by a series of long term injuries which began way back in his Leeds United days. Since then he has been injured consistently for Newcastle, Real Madrid, Middlesbrough and former club Tottenham.

After a succession of knocks and set backs with his first two teams, Spanish giants Real Madrid actually gambled on signing Woodgate while he was injured—and they had to wait over a year to see him in their famous white shirt. Unfortunately, it proved not quite as worth waiting for as had been hoped, as the defender scored an own goal and was then sent off.

Woodgate made not a single appearance in his debut campaign for Real and just nine in La Liga the following season, before he moved to Boro where he continued to be beset by hurts.

At Spurs he had trouble with groin injuries which restricted him to just three appearances the season before last, while last year he did not play at all for Spurs.

Woodgate has played just 132 league games in his last 8.5 seasons, averaging just 15 games per season for four different clubs.

Tony Pulis will be hoping that his new signing shows signs of recovery and getting back to his best sooner rather than later.

1: Keiron Dyer, Queens Park Rangers

With Owen Hargreaves currently unattached, who else could the No. 1 spot go to?

Keiron Dyer is just always, always injured.

He suffered early on in his career as well, though nothing like the utter embarrassment of riches he was able to throw at the West Ham United physio during his time at Upton Park. In four full seasons with the Hammers, Dyer managed a quite magnificent 30 league appearances, an average of less than eight per season.

For someone signed on reported wages of around £60,000 per week—as well as a £6 million transfer fee—that is a quite incredible return that West Ham got for their money.

Hamstring injuries, back injuries, a leg broken in two places from one tackle, more and more and more hamstring problems prevented Dyer from ever completing 90 minutes for West Ham in his time there. At one point Dyer missed 17 consecutive months of football as a result of his injuries and the West Ham joint owner David Sullivan actually urged him to retire from football as he was costing the club too much money.

Dyer has now joined Premier League new-boys QPR on a one-year deal and both player and new manager Neil Warnock, will be hoping for a significantly improved return on-the-pitch from the former England midfielder.