Why English football has set itself up for a Euro disaster

If or when a large number of England players go down injured before or during Euro 2020 this summer, the word ‘hindsight’ will get plenty of use by those in the FA and further afield, but as most people already know, that’s very much not the case.

As a Covid-induced shortened and packed 2020/21 season approached last summer there was talk of a year's suspension of the League Cup, whilst the Premier League began talks on the five substitutions rule.

Neither of these areas of improvement came to fruition, however, while every other major European forced through or voted in favour of a five subs rule, the Premier League left it to the clubs to decide, with self-preservation unsurprisingly winning out. 

The story was very different over the channel at the home of the World Champions, whose version of the League Cup has now been ended, and thanks to last season’s cancellation, they were able to start this campaign early.

The results are eyebrow raising when compared to other leagues, with Premier League players having 4.7 days between matches, while French players boast almost two more days rest a week than their English counterparts, with a game every 6.4 days.

Of course there are caveats that this doesn’t include European cups and not all players from a certain country play in that league, but a large number do, and Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick performance against Barcelona in the Champions League last month may well have given us a hint of what we’re in for this summer.

International tournament football is as unpredictable as it gets, but after years of debate regarding the lack of a winter break and exhausted English stars, it’s fair to say that the FA and Premier League may have missed an excellent chance to help the national side help themselves.