Enzo Maresca slams Chelsea schedule ahead of hectic summer: 'It's not correct' | OneFootball

Chelsea face a busy summer with international duty before the Club World Cup

Following the trip to Forest, the Blues travel to Wroclaw to meet Real Betis in the Conference League final next Wednesday, before the bulk of Maresca’s squad are due to join up with their respective national teams.

Five Chelsea players - Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Levi Colwill, Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke - were named in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad on Friday, the most of any club.

The Three Lions play matches against Andorra and Senegal on June 7 and 10 and those involved will then have to fly straight to the US ahead of Chelsea’s Club World Cup opener in Atlanta on June 16.

Chelsea have not spoken to the Football Association to ask for their players to be released early, but Maresca is clearly furious at the fixture pile-up.

Cole Palmer is one of five Chelsea players in the England squad

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“No one cares about player welfare,” he said. “If [my players] are tired they’re not going to play. How can you manage that? But I don’t think there’s any attention about players’ health. It’s not normal, the amount of games they play.

While Chelsea are not alone in being impacted by the congestion, their situation is exacerbated by the timing of the Conference League final, which will deny Maresca’s players the chance at a clear week off before reporting for international duty.

Manchester City are the other Premier League club due to travel to the Club World Cup, but their only representative in Tuchel’s England squad is Kyle Walker, who is on loan at AC Milan. Phil Foden asked to be left out in order to rest a niggling ankle injury.

As a result, Maresca is concerned about the knock-on effect heading into next season, with rivals like Arsenal and Liverpool set to benefit from a conventional summer break.

“I’m not thinking about next season, I’m thinking about these two games,” he insisted. “But for sure there is a chance that we have players where because of the amount of games they are tired or get injuries. Then we’ll see how we need to behave.”