Injury Time: Football in a State of Emergency

A Telegraph Best Book of 2025.

A News Statesman Book of the Year 2025.

‘David Goldblatt is possibly the best football historian there has ever been’. Dominic Sandbrook

‘David Goldblatt is the greatest British sportswriter of the 21st century … Injury Time is an absolute classic.’ James Montague, author of The Billionaires Club and Engulfed

Football, history and the state of the nation – and why it matters.

Injury Time is a sharp and thought provoking look at contemporary British society through the lens of football; a society shaken by more than a decade of economic, political and social upheaval, whose causes and consequences have proved hard to grasp.

Set against the backdrop of Brexit, Covid and today’s ‘polycrisis’ – spanning economic decline, war in Europe, political unrest and climate change – this book argues that football provides an unmatched vantage point for understanding the nation’s state of affairs. From grassroots clubs battling for survival to the rise and fall of Russian oligarchs in the sport, the game’s tragedies and triumphs echo the larger shifts shaping Britain.

With striking examples such as Marcus Rashford’s anti-hunger campaign and the uproar surrounding Gary Lineker’s tweets, Injury Time underscores football’s central role in public conversation. Football, Goldblatt contends, is the ultimate societal bellwether – a reflection of Britain’s virtues and flaws alike.