The Premier League may have just returned from a three-week break, but for many of its stars there was no rest at all. Of all the Premier League players called up by their countries, 25 played 360 minutes - the full length of four games - during the extended international break. These included 13 players who featured for their clubs at the World Cup, such as Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk, who also played 55 games for his club last season.
Van Dijk is one of several players, including England's Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers and Harry Kane, who played more than 4,000 minutes in all competitions in 2025-26 and have started on a similar trajectory this season. According to expert sports scientists and psychologists, this cannot be maintained. "It is not sustainable," Dr Dave Richardson, head of psychology, sports science and wellbeing at the University of Lincoln, told BBC Sport.
"We will start to see more clamour when we are not happy with the quality of performances; the public pay to see high quality." The impact of the hectic schedule is already being seen in players picking their battles. Five players - Cole Palmer, Marcus Rashford, Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento - pulled out of the England squad before the latest international window. Germany's Kai Havertz and France captain Kylian Mbappe also withdrew from the recent international break.
Maheta Molango, CEO of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), said the withdrawals were emblematic of a "sick" system. "When England see five players who need to withdraw when the single most proud moment a player has is to be called up for the national team, you just ask yourself, what's wrong about the industry?" Molango said. "They love to play for England.
They love to play for their national team. But, unfortunately, your body puts a limit to it. You cannot cheat biology." Molango wants a mandatory three-week summer break and a three-week "retraining" period every summer.
But Dr Richardson, who has worked with Liverpool on player care and psychology, says that will be impossible in the current fractured system of sporting bodies. "The problem is that there is no one body covering the playing schedule, and they all want predominance," he said. "They are all vying for the spotlight and championing their product as the best.
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