INTERNATIONAL BREAKS

With Noah Sadiki returning from DR Congo duty early with an injury, Omar Alderete also limped off in a friendly against Japan for Paraguay with a “muscle injury” which is as yet unknown. Of course, there’s a chance that this was just cramp but it highlights the fact that the current international break is not fully functional. Something needs to be done but what could the possible solutions be?

I will openly admit that I am not a big lover of international football outside of major tournaments. I could not tell you the last England game I sat down and watched but would have a guess that, bar maybe catching bits of the odd qualifier, it was the Euro 2024 Final. There is no jeopardy, England absolutely will qualify and due to that there is no excitement from it. I have found watching both Northern Ireland games during this break, in which was mainly out of pure hope that Ballard didn’t get his traditional international duty injury, to be so much more entertaining.

A nation that has to fight for qualification makes every game feel so important. Their win on Friday night against Slovakia not only had a great atmosphere but it was a great game too. Compare that to England, where all you can hear is what sounds like a marching band in the stands and watch Harry Kane break another goalscoring record against an obscure nation.

It has been mentioned that UEFA could potentially follow the new Champions League format, replacing the group stage with a league phase. Let’s say you play six games, two of the ten best ranked nations in Europe make up one section of your games, then two against teams ranked eleven to 30 then the final two against the lowest-ranked nations. Obviously, you may have to open it up a bit more than that, but you get the general idea.

Those six games could, for example, be played in two international breaks: one across late September/early October with the second taking place around February/March. Less international breaks, more consecutive games actually watching your club without all this stop-starting and also giving us the possibility of England having to beat teams like France and Spain to get to a World Cup.

Alderete has not even been playing qualifiers. With the South American nation having already booked their spot at the World Cup in the summer, they instead had two pointless friendlies and unfortunately, having played 90 minutes in every game from the Burnley game onwards, it is no surprise he has sustained an injury.

Although it is finally back to club football on Saturday, Sunderland have lost two of their biggest standout performers so far with struggling Wolves up next.

One thing that is for sure is that there is certainly no need to get too worried about these injuries though. Our squad has good depth, with an opportunity now for Dan Ballard to reinstate himself into the back four and a chance for Dan Neil or Chris Rigg to get a go from the start.

The next international break is only in four weeks’ time, then we’ll have a proper run of games heading into what will be a busy Christmas period, but then you remember we have AFCON to worry about…