Manchester City, thanks to international games being played during a football season, lost out considerably before they took on Bournemouth at the Etihad.
It is fair to say that Bournemouth also lost out to injuries to key players but that is a different situation. At least the Bournemouth players were injured playing for Bournemouth and, as they are unlikely to be challenging the top of the Premier League, they need to buy in January and survive until next season, when they should have a reasonable team.
City can thank Argentina, Spain, Serbia and Belgium for their absentees in this game. All City now have to do is get them fit, pay their wages and try and win games without Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Aleksandr Kolarov and Vincent Kompany.
It is no real surprise that clubs do not like releasing their players for international duty. Take the example of Vincent Kompany. When he reported for Belgium it was with a request from Manuel Pellegrini that he not be played as he had missed City’s last 5 games through injury. Marc Wilmots completely ignored this request, as was his right, and Kompany played, meaning he missed the game against Bournemouth. Wilmots may now find that, the next time Belgium has a game, Kompany, De Bruyne and maybe even Denayer will be injured and unable to go.
Tim Krul is out for the rest of the season for Newcastle thanks to an injury picked up while with Holland. Karim Benzema will miss games for Real Madrid thanks to being injured while playing for France.
These are just a few of the players who were injured while with their national teams, I am sure there are others I have failed to mention here.
The question is; What should be done about it? Why should a club like Manchester City have their title challenge somewhat derailed by injuries to their players when the players weren’t even playing for them at the time? People will point to the size of the squad and how they should be able to cope with injuries and yes, that’s true. But they build up a big squad to try and win the league, not to have players on tap for the national teams.
Compensation is fine but doesn’t replace an injured player. The only way is not to have international games during the football season. International managers will play these players in different positions to where they play for their clubs. This in itself can be the cause of injury. They can get injured in training.
Yes, these things can happen with the clubs as well but they are less likely to. When with their club, the players are in familiar surroundings with other players they know very well because they see them every day. So when called up by the national team, to an extent, they are out of their comfort zone. This is when they are vulnerable.
To my knowledge, none of these players was injured before going on international duty and all had played many games for their clubs. So how is it that they can all get injured in one game, or in training.
So, either scrap international tournament qualifiers during a season, or have a break in the season of, say 4 weeks, and play internationals then. Forget the friendlies, they tell us nothing and, even as a guide to form are meaningless.
What do you think? Should the national teams be held more responsible for injuries?
Should we do away with international friendlies? Let me know in the comments section below.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 
The league should be played from September to May , June time off and all internatinals in July and August. Maybe it’s a big ask for the players but at the end of the day they can decide if they want to play for club and country, they have no obligation to play for country. This way we would also have our favorite sport all year round.
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