Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango has strongly defended Chelsea forward Cole Palmer after he withdrew from the England squad. The lack of the 24-year-old’s absence is a symptom of a fixture calendar that has become fundamentally unworkable for elite footballers, said Molango.
The PFA chief spoke at the FIFPRO performance summit in London on Tuesday, where he examined the increasing demands on the sport’s leading protagonists. Palmer was one of five players to withdraw from Thomas Tuchel’s squad for four Nations League matches alongside Declan Rice, Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento.
Molango lamented the paradox of players forfeiting what ordinarily should be one of the proudest moments of their careers:
“You see people like Cole Palmer, someone who would have played four consecutive summers in a row had he gone to the World Cup, and you wonder why is he missing? He’s missing because he’s a victim of the calendar and that’s something that needs to absolutely trigger the alarm bells.”
The malaise was not exclusive to English football, Molango said, pointing to the recent absences of Kai Havertz, Brian Brobbey and Kylian Mbappe. He attributed this decline to a weak governance culture that was obsessed with getting votes and building power, before he continued:
“It’s a defeat for football that people like Cole Palmer and Phil Foden miss out on the World Cup. They’re the people that you pay to see. I want to see them perform at their peak and it shouldn’t be the survival of the fittest. Unfortunately, both on the male and female sides, that’s not what we’re seeing.”
The union boss has demanded a structural reform of the calendar, with a compulsory three-week summer break, followed by three weeks of retraining.
Thomas Tuchel frustrated by Palmer’s continued absence
England boss Thomas Tuchel has taken a far less sympathetic line on Palmer’s withdrawal, likely due to load management and niggling fitness issues. The German tactician feels the Chelsea playmaker has missed too many international camps through injury recently.
Tuchel called the omission a missed opportunity for Palmer, whom he had called back after leaving him out of his World Cup squad. The England boss also insisted he was looking at players who wanted to represent their country, with Morgan Gibbs-White called up as a replacement.
Palmer had a niggling groin injury last season which limited him to 26 league games and 10 goals. With Chelsea not involved in European action, the Blues will be expecting their talisman to be fully fit when they face Bournemouth on October 10.