World Cup 2022: Fifpro says players are 'pushed past acceptable limits'

Fifpro, the players' union, says that football players are being pushed past acceptable limits by asaturated schedule.

The tournament takes place in November.

Many domestic games are taking place this weekend before players join up.

The "unsustainable" workload puts players' career longevity at risk, according to a Fifpro report.

The number of games has become more of an issue with the introduction of new tournaments at club and international level.

A report will be published next week looking into player workload and how it has been impacted by the World Cup.

Key findings have been released.

• In many regions, additional fixtures have been crammed into an already saturated early part of this season, exposing players to increased risk.
• In other regions, players have been competitively underloaded due to inadequate calendar planning.
• Significantly reduced preparation and recovery periods before and after the World Cup pose an ominous threat to player health and hinder performance optimisation.

Son Heung-min played more than 600 minutes of football in October with games every three or four days.

He has traveled more than 146,000 km with his club and country since the start of last season.

Son is a doubt for the World Cup due to an eye injury.

The report states that, since the beginning of last season, Sadio Mane played 93 competitive matches for the two clubs, before he suffered a knee injury against Werder Bremen on Wednesday, putting his World Cup participation in question.

The general secretary of Fifpro said that there will be many more players who don't publicly speak about it.

"In unions that work in the biggest markets where you have clubs and types of players who play all the time, they report back to us that in the dressing room visits this is the number one topic for many players that they see impacting their careers."

There is a lot of worry.

The lack of recovery time for players has been criticized.

The English domestic season begins with the Carabao Cup fourth round on the 18th. The league will be back on December 26th.

"Especially for the players who are playing in the World Cup where there is high pressure and high states, the mental effect is something definitely worth mentioning."

Between eight and 15 days from their last World Cup game and first club game is not enough time to recover and digest the experience they have had at the World Cup.

There will be a lot of mental stress.