The conspiracy of playing 'Too much football'

Barcelona have confirmed that midfielder Gavi is to have an operation on a significant injury to his right knee.

The worst injury of this international break unfortunately happened to Gavi as he has completely torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, along with meniscus damage. During Spain's clash against Georgia, in which they won 3-1, Gavi however left the pitch in the 26th minute in tears. This game took place in Valladolid in the qualifications for Euro 2024. This now leaves doubts in whether Gavi will be able to play in next years Euros due to the severity of the injury, which will be heart braking for the player if true because Spain had already qualified by the time this game took place.

Barcelona made a statement where they made it known to the fans that the "tests carried out on Monday morning on the first team player Gavi have shown that has has a complete tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and a associated injury to the lateral meniscus". The player will now need surgery.

De la Fuente has now come out and spoke on the matter, where he said that "It now seems as if we have lost the game. This is the ugly part of football, I am very sorry, this is the most bitter victory i have ever experienced in my life".

Gavi has seen 19 outings for club and country this season but now it looks like that will be it for the rest of this current season, However Gavi has youth on his side and with this he may be back a lot earlier than most fans expect.

This injury however is just another on the list of players who got injured in this international break and this has fans begging the question, should the FA plan their international breaks a bit better?, due to the fact there is so many games at the moment in time and then to top it all off there is yet another international break, with players traveling all over the world to play an excessive amount of games in such a crucial part of the season, in the run in to Christmas, where the games build up even more.

Marcus Rashford has also been injured during this international break along with players like , Haaland, Camavinga, Vinicius Jr and Warren Zaire-Emery. Some of these injuries were not as serious as others but all clubs have been affected by them in a certain way. The French international Warren Zaire-Emery, who is a key player for PSG, made his debut for France the other night in game where the 17 year old became France's youngest ever scorer, however a few minutes later it all came crumbling down when he to was taken off injured, with a sprained right ankle and an affected ligament.

This is not the only injury France faced this week as Eduardo Camavinga was injured in a training session on Wednesday before any international games were actually played, his diagnosis was an 'rapture of the external lateral ligament of the right knee'. This will now see him on the side lines of a significant amount of time.

Real Madrid will receive compensation of €20,548 per day from the Spanish FA for this injury.

Brazil's Vinicius Jr will also be out due to injury from this international break, for two months after an injury he sustained which was 'rupture to his biceps femoris and damage to the distal tendon of the left leg'. Not only is this heart break for Brazil. it is also heart break for Real Madrid seen as the player has not long been back from full fitness from his last injury.

So far these are the worst three injuries to players from this international break, however there have also been injuries to Marcus Rashford, like mention, Andre Onana, Eirling Haaland and many more. This all links in to a comment Van Dijk made about the modern day footballers playing to many games at such intensity. This comment was laughed of by the likes of Alan Shearer, but their now seems to be evidence in what he said being correct, Specially with the injury massacre that has hit multiple teams this international break at such a vital point in the season