
Sunday's Carabao Cup final was Declan Rice's 50th game of a relentless season. Virgil van Dijk reached that landmark last week, while Sandro Tonali achieved it in the first week of March. Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez has played at a World Cup, a Copa America, an Olympics and a Club World Cup in the last four years, amassing 274 appearances for clubs and country since February 2022. The schedule is brutal. The workload is incessant. The risk is elite players will suffer at the summer's World Cup. 📝 @PJBuckingham 🔗 nytimes.com/athletic/71429…

















