Amanda Staveley has admitted that Newcastle United had a 'disaster' with injuries last season as the former Magpies owner called on the authorities to 'manage' the demands placed on players.
Newcastle had an entire XI sidelined at one point in the winter of 2023 after life in the Premier League, the Champions League and the Carabao Cup pushed the squad to breaking point - and that was before the FA Cup had even got under way.
Performance director James Bunce has since come in to help Newcastle 'punch above our weight' and get the best out of the group 'in terms of availability' in the words of CEO Darren Eales. The picture certainly looks a lot healthier this season even if Newcastle have, admittedly, had the added benefit of being able to focus on domestic fixtures.
Chelsea, in contrast, will jet off and play their first game in the Club World Cup just 19 days after the Conference League final and little more than a week after the Blues' stars have represented their countries in the latest international window. As one of the favourites to go far in the tournament, there remains the very real possibility that Chelsea could still be playing right up until July 13 ahead of Enzo Maresca's side returning to the U.S. for a pre-season tournament later that month. The new Premier League campaign then gets under way in mid-August.
Although Chelsea have a huge squad, Blues co-owner Todd Boehly said that injuries are 'continuing to go up' in the game in general 'so we're going to have to revisit what the calendar looks like and how they can actually play'. Boehly's words certainly struck a chord with Staveley.
"He's actually got a very important point," she told Bloomberg. "There's a lot of competitions. We moved into the Champions League and we had to play the Champions League matches, the FA Cup matches, all of the others, and players get injured.
"Player health is very important so I could understand how Todd feels. Newcastle have had a season pretty much injury free, but we had a disaster. Player welfare is really important and we need to manage that."