Jurgen Klopp says stars like Liverpool’s Sadio Mane cannot perform to the best of their abilities due to the ever-increasing strain of the annual football schedule.
Mane, 27, will miss Liverpool’s curtain-raiser with Manchester City in the Community Shield and return to training just a week before the new Premier League season.
He was Senegal’s star man in the Africa Cup of Nations as his side made it all the way to the final – a valued achievement for him, but one which has allowed him precious little time to rest since the end of a season in which Liverpool fought on two fronts to the last day of the campaign.