Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson dislocated his shoulder playing for Scotland against Spain in a Euro 2024 qualifying match last month during the international break. It was concluded that surgery would be the best course of action when he got back to Liverpool.

According to Jürgen Klopp, the operation was completed on October 25. Three months are anticipated to pass during the recovery phase (via BBC Sport). Time-wise, it continues to be the most significant injury to have affected Liverpool this season.

Injuries are happening more often all around the Premier League. Expert Ben Dinnery told BBC Sport that there had already been 196 since the season began, a 15% increase over the previous four campaigns.

Concerns about player welfare have unavoidably grown as a result of this disclosure, and it appears that things will only get worse from here.

With the implementation of a new “Swiss model,” teams will participate in two more games in the first round of UEFA tournaments the following season.

To even advance to the round of 16, the teams that place ninth through twenty-fourth in the overall 36-team league table will need to compete in an additional elimination round.

There won’t be the customary December to February break, and the tournament’s finalists may play up to 17 games.

In the meanwhile, 12 European teams will compete in an expanded 32-team Club World Cup, which FIFA announced will start in 2025 and take place every four years. Taking place in summer

it could significantly extend the season for elite players.

The game is headed in a concerning direction and nothing is really being done to check it. There are no signs, for instance, of the international match calendar being trimmed to compensate for the intensifying club schedule.

Instead, more teams have been added to the European Championships, Africa Cup of Nations, CONCACAF Gold Cup and AFC Asian Cup in recent years, and the World Cup will feature 48 countries from 2026.

Quite simply, more matches mean more money, and so any steps back towards moderation from here will see revenues fall.

One of the only meaningful countermeasures that we have seen is the introduction of five substitutes. This isn’t enough in and of itself to avert the crisis in player welfare, but does at least mitigate the problem by allowing for more rest within games.

Indeed, it’s worth thinking for a moment about just how desperate the current situation would be if the Premier League had chosen to stick with three substitutes instead.

There was, remember, initial resistance to the plan, which failed to accrue enough votes until 2022 after its temporary application as part of ‘Project Restart’.

Liverpool boss Klopp was one of the loudest, most consistent and, when clubs voted ‘no’, most frustrated advocates. “It’s essential that, at one point, we go again for the five subs in the Premier League,” he said in March 2022 (via This is Anfield).

“I don’t understand why it takes that long to understand it. Because the Premier League has to save their top-class players as well.

“You keep the players in a better place, you would get much less injuries, definitely, over the years — we will see that if we finally introduce it.

That’s why we need five subs, I tell you. I don’t know why you [journalists in the room] are laughing — it’s not funny. We need five subs.”

The rather sad reality is that, in all likelihood, this change was only approved in the end because it didn’t hurt clubs’ revenues. In that sense, it was effectively free PR.

Still, elite players should be thankful to figures like Klopp, who certainly wasn’t alone in his calls but used his platform effectively, for speaking up on their behalf.

Granted, we won’t see truly significant change until those in charge of FIFA and its continental subsidiaries take heed, but in the current climate, anything that alleviates the pressure on players should be celebrated, and that includes the addition of extra substitutions.