Joe Gomez Injured, Gareth Southgate Blame Schedule Overload

Gareth Southgate (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The head coach of the England national team, Gareth Southgate, blamed the tight schedule for football matches at both club and international level when he confirmed the injury of defender Joe Gomez.

Gomez injured his knee in training Wednesday before England host the Republic of Ireland in an international friendly.

As a result of the injury, Gomez was sent home from the England national team camp and returned to the Liverpool camp, which is now trapped in an acute defense crisis following the injuries of Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

"I can't say how serious the injury was, because we haven't done any scans," Southgate told a press conference quoted by UEFA's official website Antara.

"What worries us is seeing him in pain. There was no one nearby when the injury occurred," he added.

On that occasion, Southgate also criticized the tight schedule of matches that were forced to take place amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gomez, for example, has appeared in 15 matches in the last two months both with Liverpool in the English League, Champions League and English League Cup and with England in international friendly matches and the UEFA Nations League.

"The discourse on adding substitution slots has continued to emerge. But the big picture is that everyone in the sport has to work together," said Southgate.

"Given that the 2022 World Cup will be held in winter, this is an opportunity for everyone to think differently. The pandemic has created a lot of difficulties, but somehow all parties have agreed to put a schedule on such a short duration."

"We're going to keep seeing a lot of injured players. It's a sad situation. When you look at the impact on people it gets even more sad. This talk was supposed to happen last summer. We should be able to adjust the overall schedule and work together, but that is it. did not happen, "he concluded.