Players being pushed past acceptable limits, says Fifpro

Footballers are being "pushed past acceptable limits" by a saturated schedule to allow for a mid-season World Cup, players' union Fifpro said, warning that the unique circumstances of the Qatar World Cup have created an unprecedented risk of injury during the tournament.

With the final fixtures in leagues including the Premier League taking place only a week before the tournament, a lack of preparation time will be a key factor in putting players at risk, according to the union.

Fifpro's comments are part of a report that will be published next week looking into player workload and how it has been impacted by the 2022 World Cup. The key findings unearthed that in many regions, additional fixtures had been crammed into an already saturated early part of this season, exposing players to increased risk. Meanwhile, in other regions, players have been underloaded due to inadequate planning.

Significantly reduced preparation and recovery periods before and after the World Cup pose an ominous threat to player health and hinder performance optimisation.

The report highlights Tottenham and South Korea forward Son Heung-min, who played more than 600 minutes of football in October with games every three or four days. It says he completed more than 146,000km of international travel with club and country since the beginning of last season, crossing 132 time zones.

The report also highlights that, since the beginning of last season, Senegal striker Sadio Mane played 93 competitive matches for Liverpool and Bayern Munich before he suffered a knee injury against Werder Bremen on Wednesday, putting his World Cup participation in doubt.

Other concerning findings were related to top European players, such as the fact that Harry Kane had started every competitive fixture for Spurs this season and Kylian Mbappe has played 75 per cent of his minutes in "back-to-back matches", where players miss out on the recommended five-day break between games.

"The number of players speaking up shows the degree of concern players have and there will be many, many more in dressing rooms who just don't publicly speak about it," said Fifpro general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann. "There is a lot of concern."

There has also been criticism of the lack of recovery time for players after the World Cup.

The final takes place on 18 December, two days before the English domestic season resumes with the Carabao Cup fourth round. The Premier League returns on 26 December.

"Something definitely worth mentioning is the mental effect, particularly for the players who are playing in the latter stages of the World Cup where there is high pressure and high states," said Darren Burgess, a Fifpro consultant former performance director at Arsenal, Liverpool and Australia.

"[It could] potentially be between eight and 15 days from their last World Cup game and first club game and that is absolutely not enough time to mentally recover and digest and process the experience they have had at the World Cup. It will undoubtedly lead to a lot of mental stress."