Trai Hume reveals what Northern Ireland must do to make dream start in World Cup qualifying
Fresh from captaining Northern Ireland, Trai Hume believes September's crucial World Cup qualifiers are moments a young squad have to embrace and relish.
Hume, newly promoted to the Premier League with Sunderland, proudly donned the armband for June's friendly double-header, a 2-1 defeat in Denmark and the 1-0 win over Iceland at Windsor Park, to bring a long, industrious 2024/25 season to a close.
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- Times
Gennaro Gattuso named Italy head coach after Spalletti exit
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Wayne Rooney's lookalike son plays for Man Utd as millions watch amazing video
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
What impact will Club World Cup have on player welfare?
Only time will tell the impact this Club World Cup will have on welfare been looked at? Possibly not. These players have played a lot of games and will now be going from one season straight into international fixtures and then straight into competitive football prize money is the attraction, isn't it? For clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City, it is a real draw for them to go out there and play. They have both taken strong it got announced, much was said about whether they might just choose some of their younger players and not take it as seriously but looking at their squads, both are certainly going there to win players, you would much rather have a competitive pre-season, so they may be looking at it as a mini pre-season and then will have a couple of weeks off when they get back before they go again. It is a lot easier to be motivated for competitive action than it is for doing all the runs in pre-season and the friendly in the long term, it is difficult to know how tired they are going to be, especially off the back of a long season. You have to ask how much will it impact them in the league or even further down the line, for instance what about in the World Cup next summer?From the physical side, there is the risk of fatigue, and injury possibilities are heightened. That will have to be I also think that a mental break is a lot more important often that a physical one. These players are not really going to get time to switch off. That will be the is why we probably need to look further forward to understand the Club World Cup's impact rather than just looking at the Williams was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson
