We are in conversations with FIFA” – Cesar Azpilicueta points to ‘a thorny problem’ Chelsea may face

Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta has revealed that the club are currently in conversations with FIFA ahead of the upcoming World Cup.

The world’s most famous and prestigious football event will begin in less than four weeks now, and the excitement is starting to grow.

The fans love the World Cup, and rightly so. But there is a side of this particular World Cup that isn’t sitting well with some of the players who are concerned about fatigue, injuries, and over-playing, with it coming bang in the middle of a current busy domestic season.

Azpilicueta says that Chelsea are in conversations with FIFA about these concerns, and that they are fighting for the player welfare during a crazily busy schedule for them all.

At the moment, Chelsea are playing games every few days this month and come the end of it, they have to go off and play in a World Cup.

As reported by The Evening Standard, Azpilicueta says: “I mean, of course it is difficult and sad. You know, as players, you want to go to the World Cup. But we have this schedule where we have to play for our clubs and to do the best we can.

”We can’t have any second thoughts on the World Cup because there’s no point. It can happen whenever the World Cup is whether it is on the last game of the [club] season. It can happen in your last training before the World Cup so it can happen anytime.

“The truth is that we are fighting a lot for the player welfare because the schedule is crazy. Sometimes we have to consider everything. We are in conversations with FIFA. It is difficult because I understand that the fans and everyone wants to see more football.

“We have five subs now but we have in our team a couple of injuries that makes it more difficult to rotate. We are playing every three days but we have to step up.”