Football’s iron men, the players who keep going whatever the weather and continuously push themselves to the limit – they are invaluable.
A study by the CIES Football Observatory shows the top 20 outfield players to have completed the most minutes in Europe’s top five leagues (Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, LaLiga, Ligue 1) during the last five seasons.
It shows Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta, one of six Premier League players to feature, is a machine, but, focusing only on out field players between 01/01/2014 and 28/01/2019, which other players never seem to suffer from fatigue and stay injury free?
20. Nemanja Matic (Chelsea, Manchester United)
19. Leonardo Bonucci ( AC Milan, Juventus)
18. Luis Suarez (Liverpool, Barcelona)
17. Jeremy Sorbon (Guingamp)
16. Christophe Kerbrat (Guingamp)
15. Idrissa Gueye (Lille, Aston Villa, Everton)
14. Marco Parolo (Parma, Lazio)
13. Koke (Atletico Madrid)
12. Francesco Acerbi (Sassuolo, Lazio)
11. Romelu Lukaku (Everton, Manchester United)
10. Vitorino Hilton (Montpellier)
9. Jonny Castro (Celta Vigo, Wolverhampton Wanderers)
8. Mario Gaspar (Villarreal)
7. Jose Callejon (Napoli)
6. Christian Eriksen (Tottenham)
5. Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
4. Daniel Parejo (Valencia)
3. Danilo Larangeira (Udinese, Bologna)
2. Kamil Glik (Torino, Monaco)
1. Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea)