Clubs whose players suffer injuries on international duty are awarded compensation by Fifa in certain circumstances.
Bruno Fernandes, Cody Gakpo, Alexander Isak, Nico O’Reilly, Kai Havertz, Brian Brobbey and Dan Ballard are among the Premier League players already to have sustained injuries during the extended September/October international break, with two full rounds of fixtures remaining.
Real Madrid striker and France captain Kylian Mbappe also sustained an injury in this break.
If a player on international duty sustains a new injury that prevents them from taking part in full training or matches for a minimum of 28 days, the club they play for will be entitled to financial compensation from the Fifa Club Protection Programme.
The compensation package, which is offered based on a player’s salary, covers breaks in which international “A” matches are played on the dates of the international match calendar.
The eligible period starts from the moment a player leaves their home or parent club’s address to attend international duty. It remains until the either midnight local time on the day they return home or 48 hours after leaving their national team, whichever happens first.
A maximum of 7.5m euros can be compensated at a daily “pro rata” rate of 20,548 euros per day. That would be for a player that misses a full year, with 365 days being the maximum compensation that a player will warrant for their club.
Compensation is paid directly to clubs by football’s world governing body Fifa. Only salary compensation is covered, with bonuses and one-off payments in a player’s contract not taken into consideration.