Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough has called on UEFA to find a solution for player burnout owing to the hectic schedule. He feels that the current calendar can seriously harm the health of the players. Baraclough has been left without eleven senior players for their Nation League games against Greece, Cyprus, and Kosovo. The Northern Ireland manager that Corry Evans, Josh Magennis, and Craig Cathcart are amongst those who are burnt out while the likes of Jamal Lewis and Shane Ferguson are absent. Baraclough agrees with PFA chief executive Maheta Molango that footballers are walking into a crisis with the current schedule.
Back-to-back seasons as it was through the Covid period – people are forgetting that there was very little time from the end of last season and the start of the season that’s just gone,” Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough said. “For players, the demands on them are just more and more. Whether it’s UEFA or FIFA, they have to look at the situation. By asking players to go on a 12-month cycle, it’s just not possible and you’re finding a lot of these injuries are fatigue injuries.”
“I know the chief executive of the PFA has come out and said we need to look after these players because they can’t keep going on without having a rest period,” he added. “There have been studies into this by FIFPRO as well and club managers quite rightly are concerned about their players who are then going on international duty after a big workload throughout the season. The likes of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane at Liverpool for instance, could be getting close to 70 games and it’s not just the top, top players who are being asked to play a lot of games, it’s at all levels now.”
Also, Read Liverpool: Sadio Mane Promises ‘Special’ Answer Over His Future
