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Rodri is a symptom of a sport at breaking point – and we’re all to blame

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Rodri is a symptom of a sport at breaking point – and we’re all to blame

It had to be Rodri, didn’t it?

The man who, before this season, according to football data website Transfermarkt, had missed just five games through injury for Manchester City since joining the club in 2019, is out — and possibly for the rest of the season.

Why did it have to be Rodri who suffered a serious knee injury during the 2-2 draw against Arsenal on Sunday? Because football rarely fails to deliver cruel twists of irony and it was Rodri who, just last week, said players could be close to striking because they’re playing too much football.

Now, the man who never gets injured is badly injured, just weeks after being moderately injured (with a hamstring problem).

Has Rodri been felled twice in quick succession because he’s been overplayed in recent years, his body churned into mince by an unrelenting, never-ending football schedule that is full to bursting? Well, without access to Manchester City’s personalised load data and whether Rodri was already in the ‘red zone’ heading into the Arsenal game, it is impossible to be sure.

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And, yes, players have always got injured and, yes, serious knee injuries aren’t always workload-related. Maybe it was just a case of bad luck, move on, nothing to see here.

What we do know, however, is that more football tends to lead to more injuries and a serious one to a player who many believe could win the Ballon d’Or next month will only amplify people’s concerns.

Within the sport, Rodri’s remarks had already garnered waves of support. “Rodri is right,” Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibault Courtois said in a conversation with Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos. “People say we earn a lot of money, that we can’t complain – and that’s true – but we have to find a balance because the best aren’t always going to be able to play.”


Thibaut Courtois backed Rodri’s calls for footballers to play less (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca agreed. “In terms of games, it’s too much,” he said before the weekend game at West Ham. “I don’t think we protect players. For me, it’s completely wrong the amount of games that we have.”

They were not alone. Aston Villa captain John McGinn expressed similar reservations, as did Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, City manager Pep Guardiola, La Liga president Javier Tebas and Barcelona’s Jules Kounde.

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But while coaches and players are largely of one accord, the schedulers beyond the domestic leagues, like FIFA and UEFA, appear to have far less appetite to cut down on matches.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told Gazzetta dello Sport two years ago: “It’s easy to attack FIFA and UEFA, but the thing is simple. If you play less, you get less money. Who should complain are the factory workers who get €1,000 (£843; $1,110) per month.”

Meanwhile, FIFA claims on its website that: “Of primary importance in football’s present and future is the protection of player health and wellbeing.

“The suggestion for an overhaul of the calendar could include mandatory rest and preparation periods with fewer matches, fewer travels and less time away from clubs and families as a result.”

Yet it is FIFA’s expansion of the Club World Cup to 32 teams at the end of July in the U.S. that has poured fuel on the schedule fire, particularly if you’re of a Manchester City or Chelsea persuasion.

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City, who play Watford in the Carabao Cup tonight, 49 hours after the Arsenal game finished, could play up to 75 games this season if they reach the final of every competition they’re playing in, while Chelsea could play 74.

Throw in 10 internationals scheduled during the season and someone like Rodri (if he wasn’t injured) or Bernardo Silva has up to 85 matches scheduled between early August and mid-July, which works out at one every four days.

It is undoubtedly too much. Rodri estimated last week that 40-50 matches per season would be ideal, but anything above that leads to an inevitable drop in performance levels due to fatigue.


Rodri is facing a prolonged spell out (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

The immediate counterargument for this subject is often centred on the fact players are earning hundreds of thousands of pounds per week, so they have no right to complain about how much they are flogged.

It’s kind of a moot point given we are the ones who suffer, not just the players, if Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne or [insert players from your favourite team here] are in the treatment room rather than on the pitch. And besides, does money really excuse riding roughshod over player welfare? Is it OK to flog a player earning £200,000 a week, but not one banking £100,000 a week? Where is the cut-off point?

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And we’re all complicit, too, right? Clubs are happy to take the money offered to them for extra games in UEFA or FIFA competitions without putting up a protest as to the welfare of their players, or will organise energy-sapping two-week-long pre-season tours to the U.S. or the Far East, which are purely exercises in making money. Or they’ll do post-season tours to Australia after a gruelling season and before a summer of two big international tournaments, a la Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur.

And we, the media, or fans, we’re all complicit in that we just keep gobbling all the football up in our metaphorical goal mouths. We pay Sky Sports, TNT Sports, Amazon, CBS and whoever else to watch the games, we incessantly scour social media for football content, or play fantasy football, or download club apps.

The whole thing is disgustingly gluttonous. Brian Clough’s famous quote on football being screened on television (“You don’t want roast beef and Yorkshire pudding every night and twice on a Sunday”) became absolute decades ago.

And it’s not going to get any smaller anytime soon. The Champions League has expanded to 36 teams, the Club World Cup is going to 32 teams, the World Cup is growing from 64 matches to 104, women’s football gets bigger every year, there are more than 1,000 EFL games on UK television this season, and there’s even a new competition for non-League and Premier League under-21 teams.

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What makes it stop? Player strikes would get decision-makers sat around a table, but it is hard to see anything other than the calendar being condensed so that more sustained breaks can be taken, i.e. at the end of a season or for a bigger mid-season winter break. Competitions, aside from perhaps the domestic top flights, are not going to decrease in size when they are currently getting bigger.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

After Rodri’s comments, should footballers go on strike over workload? – The Debate

Dwindling audiences are probably the only thing that can slow football down. There are signs that the younger generation are less interested in watching live football and more bothered about highlights, given dwindling attention spans and the prohibitive cost of attending live matches, but we are talking about the kind of drop-off that takes a long time to make a tangible difference to the revenues of TV companies.

A tipping point will be reached at some point. It may take a deluge of injuries, or early retirements, or a drop in the standard of football owing to fatigue. Until then, money trumps everything else — we all feed the football money machine.

We’re all to blame.

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(Top photo: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)

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ESPN’s Stephen A Smith hears boos from WrestleMania 42 crowd

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ESPN’s Stephen A Smith hears boos from WrestleMania 42 crowd

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.

While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.

Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)

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Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.

The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”

Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.

WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME

Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)

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Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”

Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.

“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”

Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.

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After 55 years as a broadcaster in L.A., Randy Rosenbloom is leaving town

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After 55 years as a broadcaster in L.A., Randy Rosenbloom is leaving town

It’s time to reveal memories, laughs and crazy times from Randy Rosenbloom’s 55 years as a TV/radio broadcaster in Los Angeles. He’s hopping in a car next Sunday with his wife, saying goodbye to a North Hollywood house that’s been in his family since 1952 and driving 3,300 miles to his new home in Greenville, S.C.

“When I walk out, I’ll probably break down,” he said.

He graduated from North Hollywood High in 1969. He got his first paid job in 1971 calling Hart basketball games for NBC Cable Newhall for $10 a game. It began an adventure of a lifetime.

“I never knew if I overachieved or underachieved. I just did what I loved,” he said.

Randy Rosenbloom (left) used to work with former UCLA coach John Wooden for TV games.

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(Randy Rosenbloom)

John Wooden, Jerry Tarkanian and Jim Harrick were among his expert commentators when he did play by play for college basketball games. He called volleyball at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games for NBC and rowing in 2004. He’s worked more than 100 championship high school events. He did play by play for the first and only Reebok Bowl at Angel Stadium in 1994 won by Bishop Amat over Sylmar, 35-14.

“There were about 5,000, 6,000 people there and I remember thinking nobody watched the game. We ended up with a 5.7 TV rating on Channel 13 in Los Angeles, which is higher than most Lakers games.”

He conducted interviews with NFL Hall of Famers Gale Sayers and Johnny Unitas and boxing greats Robert Duran, Thomas Hearn and Sugar Ray Leonard. He’s worked with baseball greats Steve Garvey and Doug DeCinces. He called games with former USC coach Rod Dedeaux. He was in the radio booth for Bret Saberhagen’s 1982 no-hitter in the City Section championship game at Dodger Stadium. He was a nightly sportscaster for KADY in Ventura.

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Randy Rosenbloom, left, with his volleyball broadcast partners, Kirk Kilgour and Bill Walton.

Randy Rosenbloom, left, with his volleyball broadcast partners, Kirk Kilgour and Bill Walton.

(Randy Rosenbloom)

He was the voice of Fresno State football and basketball. He also did Nevada Las Vegas football and basketball games. He called bowl games and Little League games. He was a public address announcer for basketball at the 1984 Olympic Games with Michael Jordan the star and did the P.A. for Toluca Little League.

Nothing was too small or too big for him.

“I loved everything,” he said.

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He called at least 10 East L.A. Classic football games between Garfield and Roosevelt. He was there when Narbonne and San Pedro tied 21-21 in the 2008 City championship game at the Coliseum on a San Pedro touchdown with one second left.

Probably his most notable tale came when he was doing radio play-by-play at a 1998 college bowl game in Montgomery, Ala.

“I look down and a giant tarantula is crawling up my pants,” he said. “My color man took all the press notes, wadded them up and hit the tarantula like swinging a bat.”

Did Rosenbloom tell the audience what was happening?

“I stayed calm,” he said.

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Then there was the time he was in the press box at Sam Boyd Stadium and a bat flew in and attached itself to the wooden press box right next to him before flying away after he said, “UNLV wins.”

Recently, he’s been putting together high school TV packages for LA36 and calling travel ball basketball games. He’ll still keep doing a radio gambling show from his new home, but he’s cutting ties to Los Angeles to move closer to grandchildren.

“I’m retiring from Los Angeles. I’m leaving the market,” he said.

Hopefully he’ll continue via Zoom to do a weekly podcast with me for The Times.

He’s a true professional who’s versatility and work ethic made him a reliable hire from the age of 18 through his current age of 74.

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He’s a member of the City Section Hall of Fame and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He once threw the shot put 51 feet, 7 1/2 inches, which is his claim to fame at North Hollywood High.

One time an ESPN graphic before a show spelled his name “Rosenbloom” then changed it to “Rosenblum” for postgame. It was worth a good laugh.

He always adjusts, improvises and ad-libs. He expects to enjoy his time in South Carolina, but he better watch out for tarantulas. They seem to like him.

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Becky Lynch enters exclusive WWE club with Women’s Intercontinental Championship win at WrestleMania 42

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Becky Lynch enters exclusive WWE club with Women’s Intercontinental Championship win at WrestleMania 42

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Becky Lynch entered an atmosphere no other WWE women’s superstar has ever reached as she won the Women’s Intercontinental Championship over AJ Lee on Saturday night at WrestleMania 42.

Lynch became the first person to hold the Women’s Intercontinental Championship three times after she pinned Lee. She first won the title against Lyra Valkyria in June 2025 and then again against Maxxine Dupri in November.

Becky Lynch celebrates with the belt after defeating AJ Lee during their women’s Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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She dropped the belt to Lee at the Elimination Chamber, sparking a monthslong feud with her.

Lee gave Lynch the chance at the title in the weeks prior to WrestleMania 42. But it appeared Lee played right into Lynch’s plans. Despite arguing with referee Jessica Carr for most of the match, Lynch was able to tactfully tear down a rope buckle and use it to her advantage.

Lynch hit Lee with a Manhandle Slam and pinned her for the win.

WWE STARS REVEAL WHAT MAKES WRESTLEMANIA SO SPECIAL: ‘IT’S THE SUPER BOWL OF PRO WRESTLING’

AJ Lee reacts after losing to Becky Lynch in their Women’s Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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It’s the second straight year Lynch will leave Las Vegas as champion. She returned to WWE at WrestleMania 41, teaming with Valkyria, to win the women’s tag titles. She will now leave Allegiant Stadium as the women’s intercontinental champion.

Lynch is now a seven-time women’s champion, three-time women’s intercontinental champion and two-time tag team champion.

Becky Lynch withstands AJ Lee during their Women’s Intercontinental Championship match on night one of WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 18, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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Lee’s reign as champion ended really before it could really begin. WrestleMania 42 was her first appearance at the event in 11 years. It’s unclear where Lee will go from here.

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