© 2018, The Author(s). Perinatal hypoxic ischaemic (HI) encephalopathy is associated with severe neurodevelopment problems and mortality. This study uses broadband continuous-wave near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to assess the early changes in cerebral oxygenation and metabolism after HI injury in an animal model using controlled anoxia events. Anoxia was induced before and 1 h after various levels of HI injury to assess the metabolic response via the changes in the oxidation state of cytochrome-c-oxidase (oxCCO), a marker of oxidative metabolism. The oxCCO responses to anoxia were classified into five categories: increase, no change, decrease, biphasic and triphasic responses. The most common response (54%) was a biphasic decrease in oxCCO. A change in the classification of the metabolic response to anoxia after HI injury indicated a severe injury, as determined by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, with 86% sensitivity. This shows that broadband NIRS can identify disturbances to cerebral metabolism in the first hours after severe HI injury.