Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango has said the withdrawal of five players from England’s Nations League squad is proof that football’s overloaded calendar is breaking elite players.

Cole Palmer, Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento all pulled out ahead of the latest international window.

‘He’s missing because he is a victim of the calendar,’ Molango said of Palmer on September 29 at the Peak Performance and Health Summit in London, calling for alarm bells over the industry’s fixture load.

Molango pointed to a wider pattern, citing Nations League injuries to Germany’s Kai Havertz, Dutch striker Brian Brobbey and France captain Kylian Mbappe in the same window.

The PFA and global union FIFPRO have long warned the calendar is unsustainable. England boss Thomas Tuchel, meanwhile, has rejected pressure to rest players, calling rotation demands ‘madness’. England face a congested run of Nations League fixtures in the coming weeks, with Tuchel insisting he will pick his strongest available side. The PFA wants mandatory rest periods written into the calendar, a demand organisers have so far resisted.