There are only 25 Championship players heading to the World Cup in Qatar, almost exactly one per squad, which ultimately poses the question: is a four-week break in fixtures completely necessary?
The EFL adjusted its schedule a year ago to accommodate a pause in the calendar while the tournament, traditionally held over the summer in June and July, takes place from November 21 and December 18. That decision was taken, Bristol Live understands, after a vote held by the clubs due to the uncertainty of squads and fixtures and the long-term planning of what is an unusual World Cup.
Twelve months on, you have to wonder if the sentiment would be the same, given how few players have travelled to the Middle East and the period of inactivity now taking place in the second tier.
City's 0-0 draw at home to Watford on Saturday was their last game until December 10, when the Robins head to Rotherham United. That game has also been pushed forward to a 12:30pm kick-off, an undoubted logistical issue travelling fans, with the possibility of England playing in the quarter-finals.
Therefore they'll be no Championship games during the group fixtures and the opening knockout games. To make up for lost time, the condensed season means sides have already played 21 out of a 46-game season.
In comparison to last campaign, City played their 21st game on December 4. There's an average of roughly one per Championship team heading to the World Cup with the Robins' lone representative being Ghana's Antoine Semenyo.
Swansea and Reading have three players called up, more than anyone else in the league. Sunderland, QPR, Birmingham, Sheffield United, Luton and Cardiff have two while Stoke, Middlesbrough, City, Watford, Norwich, Burnley and Huddersfield all have one. Hull, Rotherham, Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool, West Brom, Millwall, Wigan and Coventry all have none.
In League One and League Two, Portsmouth, MK Dons, AFC Wimbledon and Swindon Town have one representative each in the Wales squad, but their fixtures are not being impacted.
Would it really be so detrimental to a club's performances on the pitch if the season carried on as normal? The answer is probably not, in the grand scheme of things. Granted, we would normally be preparing for the November international break this weekend - with Stefan Bajic (France Under-21), Mark Sykes (Republic of Ireland) and Andi Weimann (Austria) - away, but that still leaves the next two Saturdays unnecessarily bare.
For the rest of the teams across the EFL during a standard international break, they are eligible to elect to postpone a fixture should three players or more be called up for their country. This rule would currently only be relevant to two Championship sides.
There's the understandable uncertainly when clubs made the decision to postpone matches because it would have been impossible to gauge just how much of an impact the tournament would have had on the squad selection. On the flip side to that, surely they wouldn't have expected that many of their players to be playing for their countries.
There's also an argument that the condensed Championship schedule has in fact been more harmful to clubs in regard to injuries. It's been 16 weeks since the start of the season meaning teams have played an average of one game every 5.3 days which is not including Carabao Cup fixtures.
Then there's also the anomaly of the number of managerial sacking in the division this season. Wigan's Leam Richardson became the eighth boss in the second tier to lose their job earlier this month with owners perhaps viewing the four-week break as the ideal opportunity to reset and steer the club in a different direction ahead of the January transfer window.
What is clear, however, is that the number of games is making the league more unpredictable than ever. There are just eight points that separate Millwall in sixth from Wigan who occupy the last spot in the relegation zone. At the end of last season, there was a 38-point difference between the two places.
It's making for an intense but exciting cycle of matches with every side, albeit with Burnley the biggest exception, finding it difficult to maintain a level of consistency. Just back-to-back victories can catapult a side up the division and relieve any pressure that has built.
The break will give City the opportunity to recuperate and recover, particularly Kal Naismith and Tomas Kalas. Players will be handed a week off in which they will spend time with their families but will be handed heart rate belts to help maintain their fitness.
Asked how City will utilise the break, Nigel Pearson said: "They'll have some time off and then they'll have a programme to do and then we'll have a mini pre-season. It's important to get that break. It's something where hopefully we'll have one or two players back from injury. It's then a 25-game season."
There's arguments both for and against the postponement of fixtures and ultimately, it's just one of the many controversies raised by allowing Qatar to host the tournament. However, it pales into insignificance when compared to the human rights issues and treatment of migrant workers needed to build the infrastructure.
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