Rodri has warned that he may not be able to cope with the fixture calendar as he aims to go the distance with Spain at the European Championship.
The Manchester City midfielder told club staff last year that he would not last another season with the same workload after being used more than any other player in the Treble triumph. Mateo Kovacic was signed from Chelsea but Kalvin Phillips was unable to earn a place in the team, leaving a fatigued Rodri to publicly call for rest in the final months of the season.
City's midfield lynchpin is still waiting for his summer holiday to start with Spain up against France on Tuesday in the semi-final of the European Championship; the final takes place hours before City's pre-season officially starts. When the 28-year-old does return to action with the Blues, he will find a schedule that has more Champions League matches and an extended Club World Cup that will extend the end of the domestic season by six weeks.
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The man described as a computer by his national team boss has felt the strain of playing so many games and believes that players are going to have to come together and make a stand if they want things to improve. "There comes a moment when it all comes together, and it’s too much. You need your physical condition to play of course but the head is important as well," he told the Guardian.
"People only see the game but there’s the pre-game, the preparation, the travel, the time away in the hotel, in which you’re ‘in’ the game. Sincerely, something needs to be done.
"There’s more and more [games], and it looks like it isn’t about to stop. You have to take care of players. I’m very conscious of that. I reached a point where I can’t [do it] any more. But it seems like if you say so … look, I know football is a business, I know there’s a lot of money involved, but there is a point at which you have to take care of the sportsmen.
"No one can play 60, 70 games a season. For a couple of seasons, maybe, but not 10 seasons."
