Paris (AFP)

Champions League, Championship, Cups, international gatherings, Euro or even Olympic Games ... For the players of the France team, the 2020-2021 season promises to be overloaded as ever, forcing the management of the Blues, already up against the "infernal cadences", to compose to limit the risks.

Each re-entry, the same catchphrase.

When coach Didier Deschamps summons his players for the first fall rally, the question of the overload of the schedule systematically returns to the table, between cascading injuries always earlier in the season and other calls for caution from clubs worried about the health of their players.

This month of September is no exception.

Worse, it exacerbates the questions even more, after a spring and a summer completely turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic.

Monday, some Blues arrived at the Clairefontaine training center with nearly fifteen official matches in the legs since the resumption of post-confinement football.

Unheard of, even in World Cup summers.

Anthony Martial, for example, has played fourteen games with Manchester United since June 19, between the English championship to be completed and the semi-final of the Europa League lost on August 16!

- "Not compatible" -

For others, the concern is more about the upcoming deadlines.

The horizon of Kylian Mbappé, barely recovered from an ankle injury and the final tournament of the Champions League, is composed of six meetings between September 5 and 20 - two with the Blues, four with Paris SG - and this, while neither the Champions League nor the Coupe de France have resumed.

Two of them - France-Croatia on the 8th and Lens-PSG on the 10th - will only be separated by 48 hours ...

"All this is not very compatible. The calendar in normal seasons is already busy, even overloaded. It will be even more", laments Deschamps *.

The coach is faced with unprecedented physical disparities in his group of 23 players, in addition to cases of contamination with Covid-19 (Paul Pogba and Houssem Aouar).

Those who played all summer to finish their championships, like Raphaël Varane (Real Madrid) or Clément Lenglet (Barcelona), have not even resumed training at the club.

Those who did not resume in the spring, such as Rennes Eduardo Camavinga and Steven Nzonzi, have on the contrary been at the heart of the matter in the club for several weeks, with a relentless schedule until the Euro whose final is scheduled for July 11, 2021. Or almost twelve full months, with a tiny truce at Christmas.

- Areas for reform -

"There will inevitably be a period when fatigue will make itself felt, perhaps earlier," imagines Deschamps.

"How do we do it? We suffer, the players too. They must be very careful about everything they do off the field in recovery, food. But even doing everything we are not immune to injury. This pace hellish can create physical health problems for players "*.

If the coach repeats regularly that he is "not there to take risks", he also knows that after almost ten months without a rally, each minute of play will be a minute more to prepare for the Euro.

Fortunately for him, the postponed spring matches will be partly rescheduled in the fall, with three matches instead of two in October and November.

Enough to increase the room for maneuver, despite the removal by UEFA of the provisional rule of five substitutions per match put in place to relieve the bodies, a decision "which does not help us" according to the Basque coach.

Deschamps is not used to ranting, but when it comes to the physical integrity of his world champions, he doesn't mince words.

He did so to criticize the decision to position Lens-PSG 48 hours after France-Croatia, a choice "embarrassing, surprising, annoying";

and to underline the advantages of the German championship with 18 teams, instead of 20 in France, England, Spain or Italy.

"It makes them four games less, it gives them recovery time, a longer break in winter," he said Thursday.

"Let's look at what is being done elsewhere and is working rather well".

* Editor's note: This statement was provided by the FFF which, citing the health crisis, decided not to organize press conferences in the presence of journalists or videoconferences, nor to open training to them except for the eve of the match .

She asked the media to forward their questions to her communications department, which relayed them.

© 2020 AFP