Liverpool midfielder and Captain Jordan Henderson has echoed the sentiment that player’s welfare is overlooked by people more often than not. He said that the exhausting workload has become worse in the times of COVID-19 and that the players are not getting the respect that they deserve in such a hard environment. He said it is difficult to perform at the highest level during the current environment despite players loving the game.
Jordan Henderson, Midfielder, Liverpool
I don't think people can appreciate how intense it is until you actually see it first hand. Football to us is everything and we want to be able to perform at the highest level every time we set foot on the pitch. And unfortunately, in this period it is difficult to do that. That has been like this for a few years now and it has been difficult but then, on top of that, you chuck in Covid and it becomes even harder and even worse. I am concerned that nobody really takes player welfare seriously. I think decisions get made, of course we want to play, as footballers we want to get out there and play, but I am worried about player welfare and I don't think anybody does take that seriously enough, especially in this period, when Covid is here. We will try to have conversations in the background and try to have some sort of influence going forward, but at the minute I don't feel the players get the respect they deserve in terms of having somebody being able to speak for them independently and having the power to say actually this isn't right for player welfare.
