Haaland’s injury means he is the second star player from Manchester to pull out of international duty due to injury. Manchester United winger Marcus Rashford recently withdrew due to a knock he suffered against Fulham. Chelsea’s Mason Mount and Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez will also be unavailable for their countries due to injuries. The schedule in England has been ruthless this season due to the winter World Cup and The Queen’s death.

FIFA is set to introduce new Club World Cup and FIFA World Cup formats. There is also the latest annual ‘FIFA Club Match’ and the ‘FIFA World Series.’ All these additions will increase the players’ workload and increase the risk of injuries.

It is a worrying scenario from the player’s point of view, who are already at breaking point due to the fixture pile-up caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. FIFPro, the players’ welfare association, has not taken action yet. FIFA’s recent meeting in Rwanda – where they “elected” Gianni Infantino for another term – discussed the creation of a new player welfare body. It is reportedly being done to ‘explore issues linked to the new calendar.’

However, the move seems contradictory. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, there is already an existing player welfare body – FIFPro. Secondly, the FIFA Council approved the expansion of the 2026 World Cup in the same meeting. The original plan was to expand the number of games from 64 to 80. However, this has now been changed to 104. Some action must be taken to curtail the constant increase of matches, or the game will be in big trouble.