FM24 Guide: How to Reduce Injuries

How to Reduce Injuries in Football Manager 2024

Injuries are an inevitable part of football, but effective management in Football Manager 2024, like in real life, can reduce their frequency and severity. By balancing your playing style, training intensity, rest, squad rotation, and medical resources, you can maintain a healthy and competitive squad. Here’s a detailed guide to minimizing injuries and keeping your team performing at its peak:

Avoid Injury-Prone Players

Prevention begins with recruitment, so you can avoid enduring costly, long-term absences. When considering signings:

• Prioritise Durability: target players with high Natural Fitness and low injury proneness. You can assess this through their scout reports, which often highlight injury concerns. A helpful tip is to use nicknames to track injury-prone players, such as adding “IP” (e.g., Player X - IP) to their name for quick identification.

Could have real problems with injuries means 18-20 Injury Proneness

Might have problems with injuries means 15-17 Injury Proneness

Fairly susceptible to injuries means 12-14 Injury Proneness
Lower values doesn't appear on Report

• Review Injuries History: assess a player’s Injury Susceptibility by analyzing the severity and frequency of their previous injuries in their Injury History.

• Review individual Medical Report: the Medical Report of each player provides essential information for managing their fitness and preventing injuries. The Match Load tracks the intensity and frequency of their match involvement, helping you identify players who may be overused. The Training Load reflects their recent training intensity, allowing you to adjust workloads to avoid overtraining. Injury Susceptibility offers an analysis of how prone the player is to injuries based on their physical attributes and past record, while the Fitness Level indicates their current physical condition and ability to cope with training and match demands. Fatigue Level highlights how drained the player is, guiding decisions on when to rest them, and Match Sharpness reveals their readiness for competitive action, balancing fitness with match readiness. The Overall Risk of Injury combines multiple factors to assess the likelihood of an injury, providing a comprehensive risk assessment. Lastly, the Injury History records all previous injuries, their severity, and recovery times, giving a clear picture of recurring issues or chronic problems. By regularly monitoring these metrics, you can make informed, data-driven adjustments to your players’ workload, recovery routines, and match involvement, ensuring their long-term fitness and reducing injury risks.

• Weight the Risk: for injury-prone stars, carefully balance their talent against the likelihood of them missing games. For older players, consider that their Natural Fitness will likely decline over time, increasing their risk of injury. To maximize their impact, you may need to manage their workload by prioritizing their availability for the most important games rather than deploying them in every match. This strategic approach can help preserve their fitness and effectiveness throughout the season.

Build a Strong Medical Centre

Your medical team is your greatest ally in injury prevention and recovery. A competent and comprehensive medical team can make the difference between a healthy squad and a season plagued by injuries:

• Sports Scientists: these specialists monitor overall injury risk, which indicates overuse and fatigue. Adjust training workloads, provide rest, and rotate players to minimize these risks. Hire individuals with high Sports Scienceattributes to accurately manage every player’s fitness level and injury risk.

• Physiotherapists: responsible for rehabilitation, physios require a high Physiotherapy attribute to handle injuries prevention and treatment effectively.

• Specialist Treatment: this involves sending players to top-tier medical professionals outside the club and will typically reduce the player’s time on the sidelines significantly. It’s a treatment option that appears only in specific injuries and comes at a premium cost but can be highly worthwhile, especially for key players or during critical moments in the season.

By regularly visiting the Medical Centre, you stay informed about player fitness and can act decisively to prevent injuries

Training and Player Rotation

Balancing training intensity, player rest, and match sharpness is essential for reducing injury risks and maintaining a competitive squad in FM24. Careful planning of training schedules and squad rotation ensures your team stays fit, sharp, and ready to perform.

Training intensity directly impacts player fitness and injury susceptibility, requiring adjustments throughout the season:

• Pre-Season: push players harder with double-intensity sessions to build fitness and prepare for the demands of the season.

• In-Season Planning: adapt training schedules based on your fixture list. During congested periods, reduce intensity and include rest days for players flagged as high risk or in the Red Zone and promote adequate rotation during less critical matches, such as domestic cup games or against weaker opponents.

• In-Season Return to Play: you also have to ensure that players who have been rested or returning from injuries get enough minutes in reserve or developmental teams until they reach a proper match load before rejoining the first team.

• Weekly Adjustments and Forward Planning: tailor training sessions to individual workloads, considering advice from your backroom staff to prevent overtraining and use the fixture schedule to identify opportunities for rotation, balancing rest with sharpness to keep the squad fresh.

Remember, injuries are as likely to occur during training as they are in matches, so proactive management is critical.

Does your Playing Style and Tactical Approach affect Injury Risk?

Your playing style directly affects player workload and injury susceptibility:

• High-Intensity Tactics: systems that rely on counter-pressing, high tempo, and aggressive transitions are physically demanding. While effective, they significantly increase injury risks, especially for players who are less fit, aging, or recovering from injuries. You can see the intensity level on tactics screen.

• How to reduce intensity?: integrate moments of lower intensity in your tactics, such as slowing the tempo, reducing pressing urgency, wasting time or adopting a defensive shape. These adjustments conserve energy while maintaining overall competitiveness.

The more demands you place on your players, the higher the likelihood of injuries. Careful planning can help mitigate these risks.

In FM24, managing injuries requires careful monitoring of Medical Reports and implementing squad-wide strategies. Regularly review metrics like Match Load, Training Load, and Injury Susceptibility to adjust workloads and recovery routines. Follow these key principles:

• Check scout and coach reports for injury-prone players.
• Hire essential backroom staff, like physiotherapists and sports scientists.
• Build fitness in pre-season to prepare for the season.
• Rotate and rest players during congested schedules or easier fixtures.
• Lower tactical intensity to conserve energy and reduce injury risks.

By combining detailed monitoring with these strategies, you can maintain a fitter squad and consistent performances throughout the season.