UEFA Nations League — England’s withdrawals expose workload crisis, says PFA chief

Chelsea's in-form striker Cole Palmer was one of the five players ruled out of the latest England Nations League matches in this window with injuries. | Photo Credit: Reuters

Cole Palmer’s withdrawal from England’s Nations League squad is proof that football’s overloaded calendar is driving ‌elite players beyond their limits, Professional Footballers’ Association Chief Executive Maheta Molango said on ​Tuesday.

Palmer, Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento pulled out of ⁠England’s squad ahead of the latest international window.

“When we in England see five players need to withdraw from a call-up, which is the single most proud moment that you have as a player to be called up ‌for the national team, then you just ask yourself: what’s wrong about the industry?” Molango told reporters at the Peak Performance & Health Summit in London.

The PFA and global ‌players’ union FIFPRO have repeatedly warned that the football calendar is unsustainable.

The growing number ‌of ⁠withdrawals and injuries during the current Nations League window has added urgency to a ⁠long-running dispute between players’ unions and competition organisers over the volume of games elite players are expected to play each season.

“When you see someone like Cole Palmer, who would have played four consecutive summers (had he played in this year’s World ​Cup), then you wonder why he is ‌missing?”, Molango said.

“He’s missing because he is a victim of the calendar, and I think that’s something that needs to absolutely trigger the alarm bell.”

Molango said England’s withdrawal list was part of a wider pattern affecting the sport’s biggest names, citing Nations League injuries to Germany’s Kai ‌Havertz, Dutch striker Brian Brobbey and France captain Kylian Mbappe.

“For those who think that ​it’s only a matter in England, then look at Havertz, look at Brobbey, look at Mbappe,” he said. “Is it a football where the people who make us ⁠dream just cannot perform? For me, it’s very worrying.”

The debate over player welfare has intensified as an increasingly congested calendar stretches players’ commitments to club and country.

“The solution is for governing bodies, who ‌are here not to make money but to preserve the game, to refocus on what really matters,” Molango said. “It is a system that is sick, because the system ultimately revolved around obtaining votes and not for what is good for football.”