Chelsea manager, Enzo Maresca, has lamented that it is not normal for a player to go on a 16-hour trip to play a match on Thursday before starting another match on Sunday night.
Maresca made his feelings known ahead of Chelsea’s UEFA Europa Conference League match in Kazakhstan which will see the Blues travel for 16 hours in total just to take on Astana.
“Eight hours [one way] is not a normal time for a game, but we have to go there, we have to play and we want to try to do our best, thinking also about the next game,” Maresca said ahead of the match.
The Blues face an eight-hour flight for the 3,700-mile (6,000km) journey to Almaty, in the south of Kazakhstan, more than 3,000 miles from Astana’s home stadium which is under renovation at the moment.
Chelsea will then have to fly back to England on Friday morning and start preparing for the Premier League clash against Brentford on Sunday – the only consolation being that the match will take place in Stamford Bridge.