Clubs outline training plans as three-week international break begins
Premier League and Championship clubs are entering the first international break of the season, which this year runs for three weeks rather than the usual two. Brentford manager Keith Andrews will give the club's remaining first-team players a week off, with the squad due to reassemble on Saturday, 26 September.
The three-week window merges the four international fixtures that used to be spread across separate September and October breaks into one slot, meaning the domestic game stops for three weeks rather than four weeks across two windows. Club football therefore gains a week back, but players not on international duty face a long period without competitive fixtures. Most squads in the Premier League these days are packed with international players, increasing the number of absentees for many clubs.
Brentford have about 12 players remaining at their training facility, including Callum Wilson and Igor Thiago, and five of those are coming back from injury. Having hosted Chelsea on Friday evening gives Brentford a longer layoff than almost every other team. Andrews has issued individual training programmes during the week off, with no restrictions on players leaving the country, although long-haul flights are unlikely to be sanctioned.
The Brentford squad will reconvene on Saturday, 26 September to begin training and will play a behind-closed-doors game against another English club on the weekend of 3 October. That friendly could potentially give Nathan Collins and Sepp van den Berg a chance to return to action, with the remainder of the matchday squad made up of under-21 players. For the second international break, Brentford are scheduled to face Brighton on Sunday, 8 November and Everton on Saturday, 21 November; players may be given the odd day off at that stage but the club expects a normal training programme ahead of the fixture against the Toffees.
Liverpool will continue training with the small number of players that remain and will hand those players a few days off. Manager Andoni Iraola said he will be left with "no more than three days probably to prepare" for the home game with Manchester City on 11 October.
Unai Emery will return to former club Sevilla, where he won the Europa League three times on the bounce, when Aston Villa travel to face Sevilla in the 15th edition of the Antonio Puerta Trophy on Friday, 2 October. The match is played in memory of the 22-year-old Sevilla wing-back who died on 28 August 2007 after having multiple cardiac arrests on the pitch during a La Liga game against Getafe.
Tony Mowbray was appointed Blackburn Rovers manager for a second time in June. Blackburn have just four international call-ups, which is a relatively small number for the Championship, and Mowbray has had to manage an injury crisis with more than 10 players ruled out in the opening weeks of the season. The break offers the chance to ease players back into action, with Gady Beyuku and Moussa Baradji having recently made comebacks and others such as Scott Wharton close to returning. After the trip to Portsmouth on Saturday, Rovers returned to Lancashire for a few days of training this week; Mowbray intends to give the players a few days off from the end of the week and players such as Yuri Ribeiro will be able to return home to Portugal, if they so wish. The cycle will be repeated the following week — training in the first half with a short weekend break — before week three reverts to the usual pre-match routine ahead of the home game against Cardiff, and Mowbray is seeking a Premier League or League One opponent for a behind-closed-doors friendly to help those returning from injury.
League One will continue playing unless clubs have three call-ups that meet the EFL's criteria, in which case a postponement can be requested; only four of the 12 matches have survived on each of the two weekends. Many clubs prepared by scheduling Football League Trophy fixtures during these three weeks, and because clubs tend to rotate in that competition the games still go ahead even if league games are postponed. Twelve teams will play two trophy ties, with 10 clubs playing once, which left Leyton Orient and Reading at risk of not having a game to play; both have only had one league match called off, so will not have all three weeks vacant.
Clubs return to activity with a mixed calendar of friendlies and competitive fixtures: Sevilla v Aston Villa in the Antonio Puerta Trophy is on Friday, 2 October; Brentford's behind-closed-doors friendly is scheduled for the weekend of 3 October and the squad will have reconvened on Saturday, 26 September; Liverpool are due to host Manchester City on 11 October, and Brentford's Premier League matches against Brighton and Everton are set for 8 November and 21 November respectively.