At Euro 2020, Fatigue May Be the Toughest Foe

Before the last European Championship, in 2016, players had enjoyed an average of 4.5 days of rest between games. This time, that figure is down to 3.9 days, according to the study. For some of the major nations, the figures are more striking still: The players representing Spain, France, England and Italy have had, on average, only 3.5 days between matches this season.

To Strudwick, though, that is only part of the story. As leagues and governing bodies scrambled to make up ground lost to the first wave of the pandemic, there was little or no break between the end of the 2019-20 season and the start of the 2020-21 edition. In some cases, it extended no longer than a couple of weeks.

“There was barely any time off,” Strudwick said. “Normally there is a season, an international break, a split in the middle, and then you go again. This time, it was just a small break, and then into the next season, with games every three or four days and highly dense international periods.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/sports/soccer/euro-2020-fatigue.html