Holding a World Cup in the middle of a club season in the winter has always been a silly idea, perhaps on par with the idea that the tournament could ever be held in the summer in Qatar, which is what that this country and FIFA originally sold when they. give it to Qatar (and it’s literally for sale). However, in reality, that idea contained the fantasy of floating air conditioning equipment on stadiums, so I guess that’s a bad idea.
Anyway, the surge of most domestic seasons by clubs, as well as the tighter chances that the World Cup will take place, has created a very awkward season that will only become more and more difficult. the oddity and feeling since then and for many months after the trophy was hung in Doha. And of course, there are entire “thousands of dead immigrant workers” so some unbelievably rich oil executives could be even richer”, as well as essentially punishing anti-politics. women, anti-LGBTQ+ government of Qatar. On that scale, a few players absent from the tournament because of injury seem a bit like a pea.
But that’s our responsibility today, and yesterday France watched between their fingers as another player would start midfield for them who seemed to have knocked themselves out of the tournament. Raphael Varane stood in front of Chelsea and was in tears as he realized the severity of his injury and what it meant he would miss the World Cup. Today’s report many hoped that he might just miss most of the group stage, but that’s still less than ideal. Especially for a French team that is certain to be without N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba, the team’s center of control won the final edition of this tournament (although they were also there when most of the French nation and the good part of his team-mates blamed Pogba when they were knocked out of Euro 2020).
Losing a starting centre-back behind them would be a lot for France, and even if they could have been one of three or four international teams with so much talent, they could have prevented the situation. France could probably just switch to Real Madrid duo Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga and feel pretty good, but clearly their depth will be tested. Even if Varane does return, he won’t be playing for a month and will have a hamstring, which puts a lot of pressure on William Saliba or Dayot Upamecano, two clearly gifted but also untried players. experience at the highest level. .
But France is hardly alone. In just the past few weeks, Portugal have lost Diogo Jota, who has often nailed their forwards. England can and probably won’t have their right defence with Reece James and Kyle Walker. Argentina could be without Pablo Dybala and Angel Di Maria, at least for part of the latter’s tournament. Gini Wijnaldum has a broken leg and will not appear in the match against the Netherlands. Mexico will start without Jesus Corona. Senegal will not have Bouna Sarr. The list could go on, and there’s still a month of tournaments trying to cram in as many games as possible before the break is extended so the list gets a lot longer. The fixture is punitive and quite frankly, unfair to the players.
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That’s not to say injuries aren’t part of every World Cup. Players get tired in April and May after an entire season of running mileage on the odometer or something “flickering!” all the time, and usually three weeks to a month between the season and when a World Cup starts isn’t usually enough to save them. One can recall a devastated Mo Salah in the 2018 Champions League final after Sergio Ramos nearly succeeded in tearing off his arm, as he realized he could miss the stay. of Egypt in Russia (he missed the first two). But those three weeks provide more stepping stone than this tournament’s seven or so days.
More importantly, those three weeks give players more time to deal with minor injuries and fatigue, although the sum of a nine-month season still weighs heavily on them in any given year. what summer tournament? But players who only have minor calf problems or just a little heavy in their legs will have enough time to see those go before a big tournament. For this, anything that sends a player off in the 65th minute against Wolves or Getafe on a weekend will still be there as they adapt a week later for their country. And given the tournament is underway and the group stage will essentially last eight or nine days for most teams instead of 10 or 12, those injuries will only get worse. Meaning the depth will be tested more than usual, which is why a team like France will sweat quite a bit at the news of Varane.
So not only do we have all the problems mentioned above with this Qatar World Cup, but we could get something like a monster of a tournament, depending on how healthy the player is. Anyone and everyone can stay. It may not be a test of who has the best team or cohesive plan but simply who can stand their ground. And of course, anything that happens in Qatar for these players will have an immediate effect for their club right after the World Cup, where there would normally be a month or six weeks before a season. The club tournament begins.
Seems like a great plan to do it this way.
