What if a player becomes unavailable in FPL?

Why do players become flagged as unavailable in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) and how can you tell?

We answer these questions below as part of our FPL Training Academy series, covering all the basics of the game.

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How do players become unavailable in FPL?

Players become unavailable due to injuries, suspensions, or leaving the league.

Their unavailability is indicated by either a red, amber or yellow flag – clicking on it will tell you why that player is unavailable.

Generally speaking, Fantasy Premier League will only flag a player when the player, manager or someone else closely associated with the club confirms a reason for doubt.

If a player is allegedly missing from training or holding a bottle of Night Nurse on their latest Instagram post, it might be a sign he’s likely to miss the next game, but unless this has been confirmed by a reliable source, the Fantasy Premier League won’t acknowledge it.

Rumours – however strong they might be – aren’t considered a dependable source of information by FPL HQ.

How can I tell if an FPL player is unavailable?

A red flag means a player is almost certainly ruled out.

Usually they’re carrying a serious injury, are suspended or their manager has confirmed  they won’t start in the next game.

It’s almost unheard of to see a red-flagged player start the next game.

Amber flags represent serious uncertainty. In other words, a player’s status is ambiguous, but the player remains unlikely to start.

We often see amber flags when a player is recovering from a more serious injury, or when the severity of a recently acquired injury is still unknown.

It’s very unusual to see an orange-flagged player start the next game.

Yellow flags are the least-severe warning. They tell us that whilst a player’s status is still ambiguous, he has a feasible chance of starting the next game.

Yellow flags often appear when a manager confirms that the player is carrying a minor injury or illness.

It’s not unusual to see a yellow-flagged player start the next game, and often they’ll appear on the bench too.

 

How reliable are the appearance likelihoods given by FPL?

Fantasy Premier League also offer a likelihood of a player appearing in their next game.

For yellow flags, it will show a 75% chance of appearing in the next gameweek.

For orange flags you’ll see either 25% or 50%.

There’s no percentage for red flags, but there’s an implied 0% chance.

These percentages are very vague, and should be taken with a pinch of salt. For a more reliable update on a player’s injury status, check out our weekly injury updates and predicted lineups here on Fantasy Football Hub.

Check out our fantasy football ultimate guides

Our Ultimate Guide to FPL has everything you could ever need to guide you through each gameweek. Regularly updated, it includes all our FPL content in one handy place – from team reveals from some of the best FPL managers in the game to tips on the best players and much more.

We also have ultimate guides for Dream Team and Telegraph Fantasy Football, which are also home to tips and regular articles from experts in these formats.