Erik ten Hag warns that injuries are ‘unavoidable’ for ‘overloaded’ players

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Erik ten Hag believes it is “almost unavoidable” that top players get injured because they are overworked as they are given more and more games to play as he called for football to stop letting money dictate everything.

Manchester United had 66 injuries last season, when they played 52 games, while they faced 62 fixtures the previous season.

The expansion of the Champions and Europa Leagues and the introduction of the Club World Cup have added to the workload and Manchester City midfielder Rodri, who warned players may consider going on strike if they have to play 70 or 80 games a season, then suffered a serious knee injury.

United could play 17 Europa League matches this season and manager Ten Hag believes commercial reasons account for the extra games that he feels are bad for football.

He called upon the industry as a whole to come together to strike the right balance between the financial and the footballing.

“There are so many games, it is clear,” he said. “The top players are overloaded. This is not good for football. It is good for commercial but there is a limit. The players get injured and it is almost unavoidable.

“It is more about the total, clubs and players and coaches and so many others you are there in the football have to work on this to improve the game and find the right balance. At the end of the day, it is commercial and the revenues have to come.

“It’s more about the total industry. It’s about clubs, players and so many others who are there in the of football have to work to improve the game and find the right balance. At the end of the day, it’s financial. We are professional, revenues have to come, but we have to balance this out.”