The international break gave us bodies back, but it didn't give us rest. That's the cruel paradox of modern football: you release your players to their national teams, they play two competitive matches in ten days, fly halfway across the world, and return to your training ground carrying the fatigue of someone else's fixtures in their legs.
I stood in the medical room at Beckenham on Wednesday morning, the day after the players returned, and watched Rebecca work through the data on her tablet. She moved through the squad fitness profiles one by one, swiping left, swiping right, her face growing more concerned with each screen.
Neves had played ninety minutes for Portugal in Lisbon and then again in Andorra one hundred and eighty minutes of competitive football in five days, on top of three full matches in the week before the break.
Milivojević's GPS data from the Serbia camp showed he had covered more ground in two international matches than in any two-match span at Palace.
