Harry Kane is angry at the wrong people - Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton aren't to blame for England withdrawals

Another international break rolls around, and another slew of players withdraw from the England squad within hours of receiving their call-ups. It’s a scene we’ve seen so many times before that we’re desensitised to it – or at least, most of are. Harry Kane clearly sees things rather differently.

“England comes before anything,” the Three Lions captain told ITV. “It comes before club. It is the most important thing you play for as a professional footballer…

“It's a shame this week. It's a tough period of the season and maybe it's been taken advantage of a little bit. I don't really like it, if I'm totally honest. I think England comes before any club situation.”

Eight of England’s players are among those suggested to have “taken advantage” of the international break to enjoy some rest ahead of a hectic spell of domestic football, with Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite additionally flying home with an injury after being called up as a replacement.

Several very senior players are among those to have withdrawn, and some may not take too kindly to Kane’s comments. A couple have genuinely picked up injuries – Bukayo Saka, twice England Men’s Player of the Year, limped out of Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea last weekend for instance – and it’s hard to imagine that players like Branthwaite who are fighting to earn a place in the squad would head home without good reason. Still, Kane is likely right to imply that some of those players are choosing to skip playing when they could have done so.

It's hardly a new phenomenon, of course. Established England players have been pulling out of matches all the time, including ones which carry far more weight than those in the Nations League do. Kane’s belief that England duty comes before a club contract does not appear to be widely shared, not that it makes the sentiment wrong.

Nor is it an English issue – the same sick notes are handed in all over the globe. Bryan Mbeumo has told Cameroon he can’t play this week. Lisandro Martínez has withdrawn from Argentina’s games with a sudden knock. Son Heung-Min stepped away from South Korean duty in October. International break injuries are at epidemic levels.

If Kane is frustrated, though, it probably isn’t the players that he should be fussing at – it’s their clubs, because in a large number of these cases, players who withdraw from these games are being leaned on to do so by teams that have often just made them play through minor injuries for several weeks in a row.

This is the second time that Saka has stepped away from England this season, but he played through at least two injuries for Arsenal in the 2023/24 campaign. That’s one example in a sea of them, and it’s hard to see Saka as a player who resents his international responsibilities. He certainly hasn’t looked unenthusiastic, either on the pitch or in the swimming pool with an inflatable unicorn.

Not that there aren’t players who aren’t happy to take a fortnight off, even if few of them would ever say so publicly. Paul Scholes is one of only a handful of top-level internationals who admitted to disliking playing for their country – following his retirement from England duty at the age of 29, he cited being away from his family for days on end and the fact that he didn’t enjoy working with the national side as his reasons for quitting after earning 66 caps. A footballer’s life is already relentless without adding extra international travel, after all.

The broadest issue that many players have with international football is simply that there are too many damned games to play. Footballers are already stretched to breaking point and encouraged to play through minor knocks and muscular issues, gradually damaging their bodies in the process. They are well remunerated for all this at the highest levels of the game, but they are exhausted.

When no fewer than nine players end up withdrawing from the squad – a particularly high number, especially when so many of them are important members of the team – it should be seen not only in the context of a creeping disinterest in playing for the national side and a sense that it has become less important over time, but also in the context of increasing chatter about a players’ strike.

Rodri and Alisson are among the high-profile players to float the idea of withholding labour in response to FIFA’s ever-expanding fixture list, and they have been encouraged by some influential individuals, such as La Liga president Javier Tebas. FIFPRO, the global umbrella union, are already taking action against FIFA over their unilateral handling of the schedule. Dissatisfaction is growing as players become more exhausted.

Kane, of course, is subject to the same pressures, and his resilience and determination to represent his country is praiseworthy. In the last international break, he reported for duty with an injury sustained while playing for Bayern Munich but remained with the team despite being unable to play against Greece at Wembley. But he is an exception, not the rule.

The blunt fact is that players are paid more by the clubs than by their countries (England players traditionally donate their salaries from the FA) and have more room to leave the squad than they do with the clubs to whom they are contracted. Something has to give, and it’s a lot easier to make it a Nations League game in Athens that gives than it is a Premier League fixture. Even if players share Kane’s enthusiasm for the Three Lions, it is often international duty that has to be sacrificed to make room for the care of their own bodies. No other choice is offered.

The international fixture list could probably stand to be scaled back slightly to make room for a proper winter break for all major leagues, not just those with less onerous fixture schedules. The Nations League was a bold and worthwhile attempt to replace friendlies with something more meaningful, but does not seem to have captured the public imagination. There are plenty of places in which the domestic calendar can be judiciously pruned. Kane can fulminate about the players under his captaincy if he wishes, but he would likely see more of them if less was asked of them in the first place.

But while the growing frustration at FIFA’s handling of the football calendar is very understandable, the way that major clubs treat their own players’ health needs to be under the microscope as well. Players who need rest and rehabilitation are being compelled to play, time and again, with the pursuit of short-term glory and financial gain prioritised over the well-being of the players. It’s a trend that has gathered steam quietly over a number of years.

These are the places that influential players like Kane should direct their ire. Perhaps some of England’s players could demonstrate a sturdier attitude or show more pride in playing for their national team – but the root cause of the exodus of players we see every international break is the way their fitness is handled at club level. It’s a growing problem that needs to be tackled, but as it stands, all the anger is pointed, rightly and wrongly, away from clubs that are increasingly exploiting their own workforce.