Tottenham Hotspur defender Sergio Reguilón has stressed more players will succumb to injuries if nothing is done to solve fixture congestion.
The right-back has missed three matches this season, but still has 10 appearances to his name. In addition to this, he was part of Luis Enrique’s Spain squad for the last two international breaks.
Nuno Espírito Santo has seen his side play eight league games, four more in European competition [which includes two qualifiers] and one in the EFL Cup.
It’s not just the games with the club, which are leaving many players with hardly any time to rest, but with their respective national teams as well.
Earlier, only two fixtures were scheduled in international breaks during the course of a season. Post pandemic, the number of matches has now increased to three, at least in Europe and South America.
Reguilón isn’t happy with the fixture pile up and has made his feelings public on this topic.
“One day we will all explode. We are not machines. You can see with the amount of injuries there are. It’s a lot of burden for the players,” he told El Partidazo de Cope.
Reguilón played the full 90 minutes in Spurs’ 3-2 win over Newcastle United at St James’ Park. Just before the break, the former Real Madrid man was quick to inform the referee to stop the game as a fan in the stands needed quick medical attention.
Regarding the unfortunate incident, the Spurs player said: “I realised it pretty quickly. I saw a man lying in the stands and another one trying to revive him. The person was unresponsive.
“I told the referee that a person was dying, but he thought I was protesting a play and I almost got a yellow. I spoke to the referee in English and Spanish. I said, ‘Get defibrillator fast, please’.”
“I was getting very nervous, my head was elsewhere. Luckily it happened to the fan in the stands and we were able to react quickly to help him. If there is no defibrillator, it does not bear thinking about. I hope this is the last time this happens to me in my life.”
