If the player who loves football more than anybody else can feel it, then the rest have no hope.

Phil Foden was at the peak of his powers last summer: Premier League champion for the sixth time, a 16th winner's medal for Manchester City around his neck at just 24-years-old, and ready to play a key role for England at a major tournament.

But Euro 2024 was hard, despite England reaching the final, and Foden felt burned out after a 12-month season in which he played 65 times. Now, in an exclusive interview with the Manchester Evening News, Foden has spoken candidly about the impact of that season. Not just physically, but mentally.

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Remember, this is the kid who always has a ball at his feet and has to be dragged off the training pitch. He had hinted at the burnout earlier in the campaign, but this was the most open he has been about a subject that must be difficult.

"When you add up all the games and all the travelling it is a lot for the body," he said. "I just wasn't feeling 100 per cent when I was training, and then there were a few niggles. I was getting frustrated a lot because I enjoy my football and want to be out there and when things are not helping you to be 100 per cent it's really difficult to accept that.

"For me, football is played with the brain and when the brain is mentally fatigued you're not going to see a player for who he is. I'm normally itching to get back but when I came back my body and my mental state was low.

"My body just didn't feel how I was used to and it's something that I've had to deal with. I feel that's the reason why I had a slow start to the season."

That love for football is back now and so are the goals. However it took half a season where City effectively had to manage without the Premier League Player of the Year at his best, as well as all of their other injuries.

It hasn't just been Foden, either.

Kyle Walker's form hit a wall after the Euros and his City career is already over. Kevin De Bruyne has struggled with injury. Rodri cited the workload as a major factor behind his season-ending injury. Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan have been below their best. Even Erling Haaland thinks there is too much football and says his own form has suffered, despite having a whole summer off.

Guardiola has bemoaned the fact that Ruben Dias was never injured, but now can't stay fit - with Nathan Ake and John Stones also unavailable consistently.

The bad new is that it won't get better. City's struggles mean they will face an extra two games in the Champions League play-offs (if they get through) and they will be in the USA for a month after the season finishes for the FIFA Club World Cup.

It will be another 12-month season for some players, and the Club World Cup means there won't be any recognisable pre-season. At the end of next season, it's the real World Cup, so Foden and co. are two-and-a-half years away from a summer off.

And who knows what kind of tournament will be devised for that vacant summer? FIFA president Gianni Infantino was at the Etihad this weekend. He may have been thinking of plans as he watched Foden score vs Chelsea.

Foden is just the latest name to raise the issues of the ever-increasing football calendar. And it will change nothing.