Football players and managers alike have spoken for years now about the sport’s increasingly busy schedule, partly due to the high number of international matches.

For example, the 2026 World Cup interrupted what would usually be a player’s time off to decompress from the campaign just gone. That could therefore affect the following season’s start.

To assess the possible impact of this summer’s tournament on Fantasy Premier League (FPL) assets, let’s remind ourselves of two years ago. Back then, numerous players progressed deep into either Euro 2024 or Copa America 2024.

The time gaps

First, a quick reminder of the time gap between this World Cup and the start of 2026/27. The final took place on 19 July, a day after the third-place play-off, while the semis were 14 and 15 July.

In FPL, Gameweek 1 is spread over four days between 21-24 August.

Two years ago, the latter stages of the Euros and Copa America were a few days earlier (4 to 14 July), and so too was 2024/25’s Gameweek 1 (16 to 19 August). A comparable amount of time off, then.

Euro 2024

The table below features outfield Premier League players who made it to at least the quarter-finals of Euro 2024.

Names with minimal international involvement like Micky van de Ven and Ibrahima Konate have been excluded. As for Luke Shaw, not only did he play a bit-part role for runners-up England, he then suffered a pre-season knee injury. It sidelined him for months.

Champions Spain had Rodri picking up a hamstring problem in the final. Such limited involvement in Manchester City’s opening matches hinted at the Ballon d’Or winner’s injury-ridden season ahead. But Marc Cucurella was much more involved at Chelsea, starting all of their opening games.

Bukayo Saka looked relatively immune from fatigue for a long time, and the beginning of 2024/25 was no different. Despite a busy summer, he bagged a goal and an assist in Gameweek 1, before setting up three more over Arsenal’s next trio of league matches. However, Saka’s heavy usage over recent years seems to be finally catching up with him.

Gunners teammate Declan Rice is a fellow ever-present player when fit to start. His Gameweek 4 absence in 2024/25 was purely due to a red card. Yet the England midfielder is suffering from a neural hamstring-lower back problem and reportedly has been for months. Might Mikel Arteta try to ease the all-rounder back into domestic action at the start of 2026/27?

After all, Pep Guardiola did that with Phil Foden, limiting him to just a single substitute appearance in Man City’s first four matches. An initial delayed return was followed by a bout of illness. Left out of England’s World Cup squad, perhaps a summer off and full pre-season will help him rediscover his past form and come flying out of the blocks under Enzo Maresca.

Also heavily utilised by Gareth Southgate, Kyle Walker and John Stones joined Rice as the country’s only outfield players to play every minute of Euros action. 

They were subsequently benched by Guardiola in Gameweek 1’s opening win over Chelsea, both limited to just one start and one cameo in the next three encounters. Walker left on loan during the following January, before a permanent summer departure. This was a similar fate to fellow full-back Kieran Trippier, who soon found himself replaced in Eddie Howe’s ideal Newcastle United starting XI.

The likes of Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze were always unlikely to be benched at Crystal Palace back then, but both men now face a higher risk of that at Man City and Arsenal. Especially with England lasting until the penultimate night.

Ollie Watkins, a back-up both then and now, was replaced early in each of Aston Villa’s first four 2024/25 matches. Initially tired, he burst back into life with a Gameweek 4 brace.

Other international stand-ins like Jarrod Bowen, Anthony Gordon and Trent Alexander-Arnold saw their early-season involvement remain largely unaffected. So players in a similar boat now – such as Morgan Rogers – could look to hit the ground running in 2026/27.

Looking at quarter-finalists and semi-finalists, those who were regulars for both club and country – Virgil van Dijk, William Saliba, Kai Havertz, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva – were thrown straight into the fray when domestic action began.

Perhaps their clubs lacked suitable replacements, but these slightly earlier Euro 2024 exits were surely a factor.

The 2024/25 pre-season tracker offered further details on how soon players returned to action, and could help predict this time.

Copa America 2024

Analysing the Copa America knockout stage players, we can see that four Argentina representatives, Enzo Fernandez, Cristian Romero, Alexis Mac Allister and Lisandro Martinez, all started for their respective clubs in Gameweek 1.

The latter trio also began the following three, with Enzo the only one to miss an early starting XI when he was absent from Chelsea’s Gameweek 4 squad.

As for Colombia, Daniel Munoz played nearly every minute of Palace’s season-opening matches while Luis Diaz started all of Liverpool’s. The winger enjoyed a blistering run of form that kept Cody Gakpo out of the Reds’ starting XI. But the Dutchman may now fancy his chances of earning a starting spot under new boss Andoni Iraola.

When it came to the quarter-finalists, like before, we can see such an early exit allowed Moises Caicedo, Bruno Guimaraes and Lucas Paqueta to enjoy a fuller pre-season and heavier involvement when club football resumed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As you can see from the above tables, many of the stragglers returning from the European Championship/Copa America did actually start in Gameweek 1. The man responsible for a lot of the benchings, Pep Guardiola, has now departed.

However, managed minutes are a very real possibility – especially for the finalists.

Of the nine featured players who were eliminated in the quarters or semis of Euro 2024, seven lasted 90 minutes.

But of the 17 finalists, just four lasted the course.

It’s something we can probably expect to see again this season, especially with the World Cup being a bigger, longer tournament.

Once Gameweek 1 is out of the way, though, there are fewer concerns. The likes of Palmer, Saka, Bowen and Watkins went on to have strong starts to the FPL campaign over the first four Gameweeks, with not just their minutes improving but the attacking returns flowing too.