Expert: ‘Severe’ Newcastle United issue to rage on into next season amid news from Saudi
Newcastle United stars will continue to feel the after-effects of the winter World Cup going into 2023-24.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis.
The Premier League will pause at the end of November for the World Cup in Qatar before resuming on Boxing Day.
It is the first time the tournament has been held in the Middle East, with the dates moved from the traditional June-July window in order to avoid the searing heat in the region.
The Times reported last Thursday (8 September) that Saudi Arabia, the homeland of Newcastle’s owners, will soon launch a bid to host the 2030 World Cup in collaboration with Egypt and Greece.
It is understood that, if the bid is successful, the tournament will again be hosted in winter.
Dinnery assessed how the Qatar World Cup will act as a trial run for the potential Saudi-Egypt-Greece iteration.
“The issues around the winter World Cup have always been, logistically, how to cope with a tournament which, for most, is in the middle of a domestic campaign,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“This will be used as a pilot programme to see how things go, both in terms of delivering the tournament and seeing how it affects players’ performance outputs and availability post-tournament.
“We know that players who are involved in the latter stages of international tournaments and return with reduced pre-season programmes experience higher injury incidence rates but also take longer to recover.
“They also struggle to hit optimum levels of performance. We may see that players who reach the latter stages will, when they return to domestic football, will be severely inhibited for the second half of the season.
“That is going to impact the brand and entertainment value.
“After Covid and Project Restart, some fears came to fruition and some haven’t. From January on and then in the post-season, we will look back to see the impacts.
“Ultimately, it may be felt not only at the end of this season but on to next season as well.”
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