Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Maheta Molango has issued a stark warning over Cole Palmer's workload, suggesting the Chelsea forward has become a victim of what he considers an unsustainable, "sick" football calendar.
Molango's comments came after visiting Chelsea's training ground, where he said Palmer looked "destroyed" heading into the closing stages of last season. The England international had played 19 matches by that point in the campaign, though his overall involvement had been repeatedly disrupted by injury problems. The concern is compounded by the fact that Palmer had played almost non-stop across the previous two years, featuring in every match of the 2023-24 season before going straight into the European Championship, and then adding the Club World Cup on top of a full domestic campaign the following summer.
Molango argued that the relentless demands of the modern fixture list are putting players like Palmer at serious risk of significant injury, describing the situation as symptomatic of a wider problem within the game rather than something specific to Chelsea's own scheduling. His remarks add to a growing chorus of concern from players' unions and managers alike over the sheer volume of football being packed into an increasingly congested calendar, particularly for players who combine heavy club schedules with major international tournaments.
For Palmer specifically, the timing of the warning carries extra weight, coming in the buildup to this year's World Cup, where England will be hoping he can reproduce the kind of form that made him one of the standout attacking players in the Premier League following his breakthrough at Chelsea. Whether authorities take any concrete steps to ease the burden on players like Palmer remains to be seen, but Molango's intervention underlines mounting unease that the current system may be doing lasting damage to some of the game's biggest talents.
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