Cole Palmer is the “victim” of a “sick” system that is expecting too much of players, according to Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango.
Molango said Palmer’s recent withdrawal from the England squad highlighted a match calendar that is unsustainable and has become the “survival of the fittest”.
Five players – Palmer, Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento, external – pulled out of Thomas Tuchel’s squad ahead of the latest international window.
“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?” Molango said at the Fifpro performance summit in London.
“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.”
The PFA and global players’ union Fifpro have repeatedly warned about the impact of an increasingly congested calendar on player welfare.
In response to Palmer withdrawing from England’s squad for “load management”, Tuchel said the forward “misses too many opportunities”, external .
But Molango criticised that stance, saying: “They [England players] love to play for England. They love to play for their national team. But unfortunately your body puts a limit to it. You cannot cheat biology.”
Molango said this was far from an issue that only impacts England players, pointing to other recent withdrawals from European teams, including Germany’s Kai Havertz, Dutch striker Brian Brobbey and France captain Kylian Mbappe.
“Is that really the football that we want?” Molango asked.
“Is it the football where the people who make us dream just cannot perform? For me it’s very worrying.
“What we’ve seen over the last few years is a system that’s sick, that’s ill, because it ultimately revolves around obtaining votes and power consolidation.”
Molango wants to see a mandatory three-week summer break and a three-week “retraining” period every summer.
While the Premier League’s chief football officer, Rebecca Caplehorn, said she was supportive of this in theory, she said in practice it is not feasible at present.
“It’s something we’re really supportive of, conceptually, but the challenge is that it just doesn’t fit into the current calendar,” Caplehorn said.
“There’s always something that’s preventing us having that six-week gap that we want. Without regulatory change and change to the calendar, it’s not possible for us to deliver that.”