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Brentford Players Get Week Off During Extended International Break
Confirmed
In Short: Brentford manager Keith Andrews has given his players a week off during the three-week international break, with plans to resume training and play a behind-closed-doors game.
Brentford manager Keith Andrews has given his players a week off during the three-week international break, with plans to resume training and play a behind-closed-doors game against another English club on the weekend of October 3. The squad will reconvene on Saturday, September 26, to begin training again.
Most of the Bees' squad are away, with about 12 players, including Callum Wilson and Igor Thiago, left at their training facility. Five players are coming back from injury, adding to the challenge of maintaining fitness and form during the extended break.
The first international break of the season is under way, and this one is longer than fans will have become accustomed to. It merges the four games played in the old September and October breaks into one slot, extending the break to three weeks.
For players not on international duty, three weeks is a long time for finely tuned athletes not to play competitively. Clubs are finding ways to balance recovery with training, such as Blackburn Rovers, who will play a behind-closed-doors fixture during the break.
Lazio head coach Gennaro Gattuso confirmed that the club is planning to play two friendlies during the break. Gattuso will be without eight of his most important players who were called up for international duty, but he will use the time to maintain early-season momentum.
Clubs are also placing more value on squad players who are rarely picked by their countries, as these players train every day of the break and keep first-team standards up while half the dressing room is elsewhere. Sports science staff are building deliberate taper periods into the days after the break, rather than restoring returning players straight into the strongest available XI.
The extended break is part of FIFA's reorientation of the international calendar, approved in March 2023 to be introduced following the 2026 World Cup. Player welfare was a significant factor in the extension of the early season window, which will mean that international squads do not meet up again until November.
What this adds
This report adds details on how Brentford and other clubs are managing the extended break, including specific plans for training and friendlies. It also highlights the challenges for players and clubs during this longer break.
Background
Most Premier League teams are packed with international players, making the break particularly challenging. Brentford, for instance, has a longer break than almost every other team, having hosted Chelsea on Friday evening.
What's confirmed
- Brentford manager Keith Andrews has given his players a week off during the three-week international break, with plans to resume training and play a behind-closed-doors game against another English club on the weekend of October 3. The squad will reconvene on Saturday, September 26, to begin training again.
- Most of the Bees' squad are away, with about 12 players, including Callum Wilson and Igor Thiago, left at their training facility. Five players are coming back from injury, adding to the challenge of maintaining fitness and form during the extended break.
- The first international break of the season is under way, and this one is longer than fans will have become accustomed to. It merges the four games played in the old September and October breaks into one slot, extending the break to three weeks.
- For players not on international duty, three weeks is a long time for finely tuned athletes not to play competitively. Clubs are finding ways to balance recovery with training, such as Blackburn Rovers, who will play a behind-closed-doors fixture during the break.
- Lazio head coach Gennaro Gattuso confirmed that the club is planning to play two friendlies during the break. Gattuso will be without eight of his most important players who were called up for international duty, but he will use the time to maintain early-season momentum.
- Clubs are also placing more value on squad players who are rarely picked by their countries, as these players train every day of the break and keep first-team standards up while half the dressing room is elsewhere. Sports science staff are building deliberate taper periods into the days after the break, rather than restoring returning players straight into the strongest available XI.
- The extended break is part of FIFA's reorientation of the international calendar, approved in March 2023 to be introduced following the 2026 World Cup. Player welfare was a significant factor in the extension of the early season window, which will mean that international squads do not meet up again until November.
What's still developing
- Football fans tend not to love international breaks, but this change has been done with good intentions.
- Here's how different teams plan to balance the international break.
- Brentford have a longer break than almost every other team, given they hosted Chelsea on Friday evening.
- As is often the case in the first international window after a World Cup, there is something of a case of after the Lord Mayor's show to proceedings.
- It will, for instance, be 20 days without the Premier League in which international football takes center stage.
- That tournament was part of the spur for the reorienting of the international calendar; the fact that the final was the latest ever played in a summer tournament (July 19) meant that domestic leagues were shunted back to late August and would barely have had time to get up and running if the first window remained in its usual position of early September.
- In an ever more globalized sport, travel places a significant strain on players, particularly those based at elite European clubs who must travel to the Americas or Asia during the international windows.
- A three-week pause begins for the English Football League having been newly introduced this season.
- The break at the start of September was scrapped in favour of an extended period later in the month.
- READ MORE: 'Below par' - Blackburn Rovers boss' frustrations after Portsmouth draw Mowbray will also use the time to focus on pattern of play, having bemoaned the inability to train during a busy last month of fixtures.
- "We've got a couple of weeks to get some hard, serious work into the team because I can't sit here one week and moan that we just haven't done any training in three weeks," Mowbray admitted.
- Mowbray believes there is plenty of room for improvement and will set about that on the training pitch.