The kids like Andre Brooks, Archie Gray and Bailey Cadamarteri are all right, the reason so many are getting their chance isn't - Stuart Rayner

Premiuminjuries.com does a good job of recording injuries across the Premier League and as of Wednesday afternoon, they listed 136 players missing.

If that does not tell you football has a problem, nothing will. Unfortunately those in a position to do something about it have been in no mood to listen for a very long time.

For clubs not in European competition, the schedule is much more forgiving than in the Football League, where the numbers are probably worse still but not so well collated. Certainly League Two Doncaster Rovers will not be shedding many tears for their counterparts in the world’s richest domestic league as Grant McCann deals with treatment-room overcrowding.

Sheffield United absentees are into double figures with only Chelsea (12), Manchester United and Newcastle United (both 11) having it worse in the division. It has certainly shown in some of the performances from those three clubs lately.

If it was just those three and super-rich clubs like them, or only clubs who have been involved in Europe – Chelsea are not – you might say it was the price of success, evening up a very uneven competition.

That it is across the board, also hitting the team at the bottom of the table and surely close to having the smallest transfer and wage budget, makes it more of a concern.

Missing 136 players means fans who pay exorbitant ticket prices and expensive television subscriptions are being short-changed, not only denied the likes of Manchester City's Kevin de Bruyne or sussing out Chelsea's summer signing Christopher Nkunku, but also watching players like Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes running on fumes.

Reece James' body already seems to be threatening his chances of playing for England in next summer's European Championship. Others will go, but on their last legs.

Surveys have been taken of players recently and the results are clear: most think they have not had a proper break between seasons and too many games are behind these injuries. Football never properly reset after going into lockdown in 2020.

Its response? More games.

The Champions League is getting bigger next year, just before the busy Christmas schedule Manchester City fly to the last World Club Cup before it expands from seven teams to 32, the next World Cup will be the biggest yet, 2030’s will be spread over three continents and although the Saudi Arabian authorities are currently going through la-la land ideas about playing it in the summer, 2034’s will almost certainly be another crowbarred into the winter.