Maheta Molango from the Professional Footballers Association claims that due to the current demanding football calendar, Cole Palmer is getting burnt out from it and probably won't be the last to.
These words came out after Palmer, along with Declan Rice, Tino Livramento, Kobbie Mainoo, and Marcus Rashford, all withdrew from Thomas Tuchel's England squad for the ongoing Nations League, highlighting that the schedule is unsustainable, saying it's "survival of the fittest."
Palmer withdrew from the England squad, suffering from a groin niggle, with Chelsea wanting to manage the 24-year-old's workload and prevent him from having recurring injuries after missing a good chunk of last season through injury after being rushed back by past managers.
The Englishman missed 26 games last campaign with a multitude of problems, predominantly due to a groin injury, but it seems Chelsea's busy schedule over the past couple of seasons is now catching up to Palmer, after playing a full season with the Blues in 2023/24, then the Euros, without getting a proper break last summer as Chelsea were in the Club World Cup.
Molango called out the demands that modern-day footballers have to fulfil, and Palmer is an example of someone who has been made to suffer to meet those demands.
"When England see five players who need to withdraw when the single most proud moment a player has is to be called up for the national team, you just ask yourself, what's wrong about the industry"
"You see people like Cole Palmer, someone who would have played four consecutive summers in a row had he gone to the World Cup, and you wonder why is he missing? He's missing because he's a victim of the calendar, and that's something that needs to absolutely trigger the alarm bells."
To back up Maheta Molango's points, during the 2025 Club World Cup, nine clubs from Europe's top five leagues suffered a combined total of 25 injuries during the tournament; these would affect those who participated after the conclusion of the tournament. Chelsea, who won the tournament, suffered 23 injuries between June and October 2025, a 44 per cent increase from the same period the previous season. (According to the Men’s European Football Injury Index 2024/25)
Speaking at the Fifpro performance summit in London, Molango stated that this issue isn't just for English players, with multiple players from other nations having the same problem of their players being overworked, such as France's Kylian Mbappe, Germany's Kai Havertz, and the Netherlands' Brian Brobbey.
Something needs to change to protect the players, but it looks like commercial interests and money will always win.
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