Rodri is expected to miss most of the 2024-25 season, while Raphael Varane announced his retirement aged just 31
headed for the exit. Moving to Como at 31 was supposed to be a stress-cleansing exercise, until his knee gave way 23 minutes into his debut.“We have shared our concerns for many years now that there are too many games, the schedule is overcrowded, and it’s at a dangerous level for players physical and mental well-being,” Varane said in 2023.
David Bentley did the same, moving to Marbella to own a restaurant after saying he wasn’t “built for the life of a footballer”. Eric Cantona stopped at 30 to make it in the movies, a decision he regretted. Not everyone has to follow But here’s the issue with wages rising exponentially – brains and bodies can’t keep up. You can pay a player £1m per week, but they will still be as human, as brittle as they were before. Owners believe they’re buying a next level which simply doesn’t exist. Expectation and reality grow further and further apart and animosity fills the void.
The answer, as players have made clear, is to play less. One possible solution is a standard for a permissible number of minutes played over a given period, set and regulated by independent doctors and physios, similar to Premiership rugby’s limit of 2400 club and international minutes per season. This limit would protect those most affected while allowing smaller clubs with fewer games to continue unimpeded.
Many will argue lowering the number of matches in the calendar would be the easiest answer, and they may well be right. The issue is that’s not going to happen. More games make more money and money makes the game go round. Players have a theoretical collective power to act against this, but they’ll never use it, too busy pulling in different directions towards the same goal.
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