The Stats Behind Eden Hazard's Injury Nightmare as He Closes in on a Year Without Scoring

Since fulfilling his dream of moving to Real Madrid, life has not been kind to Eden Hazard.

The Belgian, who left Chelsea in a deal worth well over £100m in the summer of 2019, was Zinedine Zidane's top priority that year and was expected to challenge for the Ballon d'Or during his time in Spain but it definitely has not worked out like that just yet.

His body has betrayed him over the last year and that shows no signs of changing just yet as Hazard was ruled out with a muscle injury just days before he was expected to make his long-awaited return from a knock.

He's already missed 30 games since moving to the Santiago Bernabéu and is expected to miss a handful more while he recovers from this latest setback. To put into perspective just how crazy that is, he missed just 20 games through injury during his seven-year spell with Chelsea.

It means that Hazard, who moved to Madrid in June 2019, has just 22 appearances, seven assists and one goal to show for his 15 months in Spain.

Considering Real Madrid spent big specifically to get Hazard out of the final year of his Chelsea contract rather than waiting, whatever happens in the future, the signing's cost per goal ratio stands at a ridiculous £100m+.

That solitary goal came back on October 5, 2019, in a 4-2 win over Granada. Given he will be on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, it means Hazard is days away from going an entire calendar year without a goal.

It's obviously the worst run of his career, but it's not the first time Hazard has seen those kinds of numbers. Between April 2015 and 2016, he went 356 days without scoring a Premier League goal and 365 without a league strike at Stamford Bridge.

Hazard is expected to be out for the next month at least, which will keep him out of another three games, including Real's trip to Camp Nou to face Ronald Koeman's Barcelona.

Zidane is eager to avoid rushing Hazard back too soon, which is pretty understandable when you think of just how horrifically this past year has gone for the Belgian. Fingers crossed we'll see him back firing soon.

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