March internationals: All you need to know ahead of FPL Gameweek 29

The final international break of 2022/23 reached its conclusion in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Over 200 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) assets were in action for their countries over the last week, many of them playing twice.

Fatigue is one of the factors we’re focusing on in this article as we look at how many minutes each key FPL asset clocked up while on international duty. A big thanks goes to Marc Jobling, who had the painstaking task of compiling the game-time for each and every player who was away with their nations.

As well as on-field exertions, long-haul flights back from further afield may be a consideration ahead of the weekend – something we also discuss below.

INJURIES

Flags ranging in colour from red to yellow will be no doubt littering your FPL team page at present after the usual wave of international break injuries and illnesses.

Earlier today we brought you a round-up of who is a Gameweek 29 doubt and why.

Thursday and Friday’s pre-match press conferences will clear up many of these nagging concerns but for now, this is everything we know about Messrs Rashford, Haaland, Botman, James, Havertz, Johnson, Nunez, Bueno and more:

• Early FPL Gameweek 29 injury news: Haaland, Rashford, James, Botman + more

LONG-HAUL FLIGHTS AND LATE RETURNEES

The Premier League’s Argentinean contingent were the last ones in action over the break, with the World Cup winners kicking off their friendly against Curacao at 00:30 BST on Wednesday morning.

Of the nine internationals who ply their trade in this country, Alexis Mac Allister (£5.5m) is the most notable from an FPL perspective.

In case you’re curious: Buenos Aires to London is a 13-hour direct flight.

Brighton teammates Kaoru Mitoma (£5.5m) and Pervis Estupinan (£4.8m) were also involved on the other side of the world, in Japan and Australia respectively, but their games at least kicked off on Tuesday morning, over 12 hours before Mac Allister got underway in South America.

Son Heung-min (£11.7m) was similarly in action at midday on Tuesday in his native South Korea but Tottenham Hotspur don’t play till next Monday regardless.

Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) was the only noteworthy FPL name taking to the field in Africa on Tuesday afternoon but a five-hour direct flight back to the UK is a bit of a cakewalk compared to the full day of travelling facing the Albion contingent in Oz and Japan.

MINUTES PLAYED: SELECTED CLUBS OVERVIEW

How much ‘tiredness’ will be a factor in Gameweek 29 is open to debate, as the triple-headers of international breaks of yesteryear are now mostly a thing of the past and juggling two games in a week comes second nature to many Premier League players.

But with 10 Gameweeks to come in the space of two months and many teams still involved in European or domestic cup competitions, any national team game-time going into this period may come into top-flight managers’ medium-term thinking when weighing up whether or not a player needs a breather.

ARSENAL

While Gabriel Martinelli (£6.6m) was nice and rested back home, teammates Martin Odegaard (£6.6m) and Bukayo Saka (£8.6m) were each logging up around three hours of game-time with their countries.

The Gunners are out of every cup competition and don’t have any Double Gameweeks remaining, however, so fixture congestion is not something that Mikel Arteta will have to deal with in the run-in.

BRIGHTON

Not only does Pervis Estupinan (£4.8m) have to journey back from Down Under ahead of Gameweek 29, he does it after playing 180 minutes for Ecuador. Teammate and countryman Moises Caicedo (£5.0m) also lasted the course in both games.

Kaoru Mitoma (£5.5m) was handed 143 minutes for Japan for their double-header of home friendlies but Alexis Mac Allister (£5.5m), while playing in the early hours of Wednesday, wasn’t given more than 50 minutes in either of Argentina’s matches.

CHELSEA

There was good news for owners of key Chelsea assets, too, with Ben Chilwell (£6.0m) limited to just one 90-minute run-out across England’s two games, with a week’s breather on either side of the Three Lions’ win over Ukraine.

Reece James (£5.8m) lasted all of five minutes before returning home with an injury (he has since been back in training, encouragingly), while Kai Havertz (£7.6m) was reduced to a 75-minute run-out for Germany against Peru last Saturday before he was sent home with illness.

LIVERPOOL

Andrew Robertson (£6.8m) got his obligatory 180 minutes for Scotland ahead of Liverpool’s run of nine league fixtures in the space of 36 days, all while Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) was resting up at home after being overlooked by England.

While Roberto Firmino (£8.0m), Luis Diaz (£7.8m) and Darwin Nunez (£8.8m) were either not selected or injured, and Cody Gakpo (£7.7m) and Diogo Jota (£8.7m) were handed minimal game-time by the Netherlands and Portugal respectively, Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) got 165 minutes for Egypt in their AFCON double-header.

MANCHESTER CITY

No-one likes to tinker like Pep Guardiola, whose Manchester City side will play twice a week from Gameweek 30 till the end of the season if they progress in the Champions League.

Eight City players got at least 160 minutes over the international break (see below), with the big winner being Jack Grealish (£6.8m) after his mere 73 minutes across England’s two games.

Ilkay Gundogan (£7.3m) wasn’t selected by Germany, meanwhile, and is one of the few City players to have seen no game-time or not been injured over the last fortnight.

MANCHESTER UNITED

The international break was relatively kind to Manchester United ahead of their own insanely busy schedule, with only four players getting more than two hours of game-time with their respective countries – and only one of them is of any note from an FPL perspective, namely Bruno Fernandes (£9.6m).

A red card for Luke Shaw (£5.2m) in England’s win over Italy means that the left-back will have had 10 days of relative rest in between representing his country and turning out against Newcastle in Gameweek 29.

NEWCASTLE UNITED

The Magpies will arguably be the freshest side in the division come Gameweek 29, with only two first-team regulars representing their countries – and one of them, Kieran Trippier (£6.1m), barely made it onto the field of play with England.

Alexander Isak (£6.7m) did get two consecutive 70+ minute run-outs for Sweden, however.

MINUTES PLAYED: MOST PLAYED

MINUTES PLAYED: CLUB BY CLUB

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