Virgil van Dijk has warned that footballers are not robots following the publication of a new report underlining the additional stress top-level players have been faced with because of the winter World Cup.
FIFPRO’s workload survey said that 54% of players questioned have been injured felt more likely to suffer an injury, with 44% experiencing “extreme or increased physical fatigue” in the month after the tournament in Qatar.
And Liverpool centre-back Van Dijk, who injured a hamstring in one of Liverpool's first games after the World Cup, said that the game’s decision-makers must pay closer attention to the welfare of players with no let up in a schedule that is getting “busier and busier.”
"It [the lack of rest pre-World Cup] caught up with me unfortunately. My body, I’m not a robot," Van Dijk said. "In order to be ready for the World Cup, I wanted to play all the games at my club and that's what I managed to do apart from one game.
"As a footballer you want to play all the games that are ahead of you but the schedule is getting busier and busier. If you compare, for example, from previous years, it's proven that it's getting busier and busier."
According to FIFPRO, Van Dijk racked up a total of 2,897 minutes between 1 August 2022 and 1 January 2023, meaning just three players – Nicolas Otamendi, Enzo Fernandez and Harry Kane – played more minutes during that five-month period.
"Speaking from our situation in the Premier League, the standard is so high and the games are so difficult. Demands are so high," Van Dijk added in a video to promote the report's publication.
"Obviously, that's what you want: you want to play at the highest level, but you have to be ready each and every game. I'm not the one that complains, because we are very blessed, we are very privileged, and I really realise that. But we have to look at the welfare of our players and also look forward to the future."
The FIFPRO report said that footballers from the Premier League amassed the most minutes played at the World Cup with a combined total of 33,614, followed by La Liga (18,435) and Serie A (15,181).
FIFPRO also cite the recent international retirement of Manchester United centre back Raphael Varane at 29, who said that he was “suffocating and that the player is gobbling up the man.”
The survey said that 46.5 percent of respondents said they would prefer international windows to be longer but less frequent, compared to 25.7 percent who would not. The remaining 27.7 percent were unsure.
But Varane, whose France team lost the World Cup final having gone all the way in Russia four years previous, decided after Qatar that he had had enough. FIFPRO pointed out that he had eight days between the World Cup final and Manchester United’s first Premier League game.
"The very highest level is like a washing machine, you play all the time and you never stop," the Manchester United defender told Canal Plus. "We have overloaded schedules and play non-stop. Right now, I feel like I'm suffocating and that the player is gobbling up the man."
FIFPRO have also launched an interactive tool breaking down the toll the fixture list has had on dozens of top players across Europe.
