Former Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren has slammed FIFA and UEFA for not listening as fitness issues continue to stack up in the international break.
Joe Gomez was injured during England training and anxiously awaits assessment back in Merseyside, while Nathan Ake and Chrsitian Pulisic also picked up knocks – just to name a few.
Lovren reacted to the news – and Toni Kroos’ recent comments on football’s authorities – by going in on the beautiful game’s governing bodies.
‘People wondering why there is so many injuries, it’s simple,‘ he said in a post on Twitter. ‘Too many games, impossible to recover, when you know that this year is a weird one (COVID-19).
‘No proper time off – personally I had only eight days off – no proper pre-season and than the crazy schedule! Toni Kroos is right and many other managers said the same thing over and over again, but nobody listens.
‘People who write and decide the schedule of matches should think about this topic.’
MORE: Southgate issues update on Gomez as defender heads back to Merseyside with knee injury
It’s hard to disagree with Lovren’s comments, especially in light of Gomez’s injury – FIFA and UEFA need to do better by the players who make the game possible.
A lazy rebuttal to the argument is that footballers get paid more than enough money, but these frequent injuries do no-one any favours.
From a selfish point of view, it’s quite simple – if the best players are unable to play, the overall quality of the game becomes diluted.
At a time when supporters can’t even attend football matches in many countries, the last thing we need is for football to become less glamorous to watch.