Manchester United Injury News : Is Robin Van Persie’s Magical Injuryless Spell Over??

First question on everyone’s mind when Sir Alex Ferguson marked the entry of the Arsenal captain Robin Van Persie to Manchester United in the 2012 summer transfer window was that “Why sign a player who has such a big injury history. May be he was just lucky last season that he didn’t get injured and was the league’s topscorer with 30 goals. What is the guarantee that he’ll not get injured again which he has been continuously for the past 8 years since 2004?”

But such was the belief and instinct of SAF that he still bought him at a price of £24 million which by everyone was considered to be unarguably high at that time. And then there was magic, Van Persie spent his first season at Old Trafford totally injuryless, and was the prime reason that United regained their title back from the blue part of Manchester emerging as the League champions 2012-13 with Van Persie too winning his first premier league medal since joining in 2004.

But the saga has resumed itself with Van Persie again facing long injury periods now at United. Between the time he played 2 full injuryless league seasons, he scored 56 goals and assisted 26 others but he has finally succumbed to injuries yet again. He has played only 990 minutes of the available 1620 minutes this season and has been out of action since 10th of November with first a toe injury and then a thigh injury. Although he featured just once in between in a home loss against Newcastle on 7th of December, he looked no way near to being fit in that match.

Much of the cause of Manchester United’s present position at 7th place in the league table can be attributed to the absence of Van Persie for almost half the season, the striking power of the Red devils has almost reduced to less than 50%. Since then, it has been only the power of Wayne Rooney which has been taking United ahead.
Although Van Persie is expected to be back early next month but still there might be chances that he has not fully recovered from his injury because of such a rich injury history of him at his former club Arsenal. Here’s a look into the injuries he has sustained over years :

Groin Strain           2012 February 29th
Ankle/Foot Injury   2011 August 7th
Knee Injury           2011 February 28th
Hamstring Injury     2011 February 22nd
Flu                     2011 February 8th
Ankle/Foot Injury   2010 August 28th
Ankle/Foot Injury   2010 June 1st
Sprained Ankle       2009 November 14th
Knee Injury           2009 September 13th
Groin Strain           2009 April 18th
Groin Strain           2009 March 30th
Hamstring Injury     2008 October 6th
Ankle/Foot Injury   2008 August 31st
Thigh Muscle Strain 2008 May 2nd
Thigh Muscle Strain 2008 April 4th
Thigh Muscle Strain 2008 January 11th
Thigh Muscle Strain 2007 December 24th
Knee Injury           2007 October 18th
Metatarsal Fracture 2007 January 22nd
Ankle/Foot Injury   2006 November 19th
Hip/Thigh Injury     2006 September 14th
Ankle/Foot Injury   2006 February 10th
Ankle/Foot Injury   2005 December 22nd
Knee Injury           2005 October 17th
Ankle/Foot Injury   2005 February 5th
Sprained Ankle       2004 November 26th
Sprained Ankle       2004 August 27th
Courtesy : Physio room

The fear of the United fans has finally caught them and Van Persie is back in his bad old injury days. Now the question is that will he be able to carry the same form after coming back from injury as he had last season? Because if United is still searching for a silver lining, then its only Van Persie playing injuryless for the rest of the season and scoring goals like Luis Suarez is doing for Liverpool at this moment. Only then will United still have a chance at the Premier league title because this season anything can happen.