Benzema, Vardy, Muller - international managers need a Plan B as injuries and coronavirus wreak havoc with plans

Medical bulletins make grim reading as relentless schedule takes toll on players and cases of Covid-19 rise

Liverpool's English defender Trent Alexander-Arnold sits on the ground after picking up an injury during the Premier League match against Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium. AFP

Rarely has an international break seemed less welcome for club managers than this one. As Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp digested news of another injury – to Trent Alexander-Arnold – in the 1-1 draw with Manchester City, he spoke for many when he railed against the relentless demands of a fixture list shaped by the global pandemic.

“If we continue like this, let’s see which players will be fit when, hopefully, we play the European championship next summer”, said Klopp of the showpiece tournament, postponed by a year and back on the agenda because this week the last places at Euro 2021 will be decided in the play-offs.

“Trent is not the first and will not be the last that [England manager] Gareth Southgate will miss [over the next eight days].”

Not only Southgate. International managers across the world were receiving medical bulletins yesterday about players they had hoped to use in what, in Europe, is another congested period, with, typically, three fixtures in a space where traditionally there would be two.

Especially prevalent are the sorts of muscle strain that left Alexander-Arnold limping from the pitch on Sunday. This is, evidently, not a good autumn to be an overworked full-back.

Spain lost Sevilla’s Jesus Navas to a soft tissue problem ahead of their Uefa Nations League matches against Switzerland and Germany, who in turn will be without RB Leipzig’s Marcel Halstenberg for similar reasons.

Sympathy, too, for Manchester United’s Luke Shaw, who pulled a hamstring at the weekend just as he seemed to be edging closer to a possible England recall – one of many footballers on the fringes of international selection who would be forgiven for thinking that with so much pressure on the calendar, one man’s injury will much more readily be another man’s opportunity.

The list is far, far longer than that random survey of full-backs who have been committing to their diaries the demands of competitive domestic leagues and Champions League.

Two months after the 2020/21 English Premier League began, there are 26 players out of action with official diagnoses of muscle injuries. These can afflict any sportsperson, at any time. But the elevated incidence of them in elite football at the moment coincides with the heavier schedules that the Covid-19 crisis has caused.

Klopp complained about the timetable; United’s manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spoke with unusual vehemence about his players having to kick-off at Everton just after lunchtime on Saturday, after a long journey back from their Champions League fixture in Istanbul the previous Wednesday night.

Broadcasters are under fire for insisting on certain time slots for certain matches, and the football authorities in England criticised for not mandating the use of five substitutes per team per game rather than the usual three.

Five substitutes were allowed when the previous season resumed in June after a long pause, and are still permitted in most leading European leagues.

But being able to relieve two extra players who may be tiring in the course of a match is not a panacea solution. Nor, ahead of an international break that will have footballers flying to different continents and making some lengthy trips within their own continents, is naming a hugely extended squad, as many managers have done.

Italy manager Roberto Mancini called up no fewer than 41 players for the games against Estonia, and in the Nations League against Poland and away in Bosnia.

The vast list, since altered because of players dropping out, was designed to take account of expected injuries over the last weekend; possible instructions to self-isolate because of exposure to Covid-19; and any emergency restrictions on travel imposed by local Italian authorities.

Spain will be without Sevilla's Jesus Navas, left, for their Uefa Nations League matches against Switzerland and Germany after the midfielder picked up a soft-tissue injury. EPA

Klopp’s question about what sort of shape players will be in by the kick-off of the Euros, or indeed the rescheduled Copa America, next June is pertinent. International managers, who have only one more international break – in March – before the end of the season, must anticipate absentees.

They need to spread their net, and become more flexible. Expect some approaches to players who have retired from the international game, such as England’s Jamie Vardy, or even pressure on international coaches to reverse previous decisions to discard players, as France’s Didier Deschamps did by exiling Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema.

Or Germany’s Joachim Low has done by telling stars Thomas Muller, Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels they would no longer be part of his plans.

"We can't go back now," Low insisted to Kicker magazine. But he acknowledged that no manager can be utterly dogmatic given the indirect effects of the pandemic. "If there is a scenario next year where key players are missing, I will assess it."