Manchester United have been sent a warning over Victor Lindelof’s fitness, with Sweden boss Janne Andersson concerned about the number of games the defender is having to play.
Fixtures continue to come thick and fast for those at the very top of the game as a full schedule is having to be squeezed into a revised calendar for 2020-21, and there have already been three international breaks this season.
Lindelof is among those to have seen plenty of game time, taking in 15 appearances for club and country.
The 26-year-old is starting to feel the effects of a condensed campaign, which came on the back of a shorter summer due to coronavirus-enforced breaks.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been nursing Lindelof through a back complaint, with the Red Devils centre-half admitting to playing through pain.
Andersson believes that will become an issue at some stage if no rest is taken in, with an important part of his plans in danger of being overused by domestic and international coaching regimes.
“He basically plays Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday and so on, for as long as he wants,” Andersson told Fotbollskanalen.
“And he had hardly any leave at all between the seasons now.
“That not more players have injuries… I am surprised. I am also surprised that there has not been more discussion and reasoning about it from a sporting and medical perspective.
“This is extremely tough for the players. And it’s not like they play against bad teams. These are very tough matches all the time.
“I really hope Victor can get his back in order. Injured players… it’s not fun. If he gets the chance to fully recover, we will see in the future.”
Andersson’s concerns have been echoed by Solskjaer this season, with the Red Devils manager airing his frustration when it comes to scheduling after taking in a lunchtime kick-off at Everton which came at the end of a Champions League week.
The Norwegian told BT Sport: “We were set up to fail.
“I said to you before, I want to talk about the kick-off time. They set up the boys to fail.
“We’ve got Luke Shaw injured today because we’ve been to Turkey, we’ve played loads of games already this season, we’ve been to Turkey on Wednesday night, back in Thursday morning and we’re playing Saturday in a lunchtime kick-off, it’s an absolute shambles.
“I can’t praise the boys enough for the character they’ve shown. Those boys deserve better than being thrown out here to fail.”
