Cesar Azpilicueta, captain of Premier League club Chelsea, blamed the timing of the coming Qatar FIFA World Cup for the series of injuries recently in the top football leagues in Europe.

Qatar will host this year's World Cup from November 20 to December 18. For the first time in its history, the top football tournament on Earth will take place in winter, in the middle of the European football league seasons, the UEFA Champions League and other competitions. As a result, not only will the football league seasons have to take a pause, the Champions League stage games need to be completed five weeks earlier than usual.

So far, multiple star players have been ruled out of the World Cup due to injuries: Reece James of England for knee injury, Diogo Jota of Portugal for calf injury, N'Golo Kante of France for hamstring surgery. Kante's national team teammate Raphael Varane of Manchester United is also questionable for Qatar after suffering a hamstring injury during the 1-1 draw against Chelsea on October 22.

"It's difficult and it's sad because as players you want to go to the World Cup, but we have this schedule where we have to play for our club and do our best," Azpilicueta said ahead of the Champions League game against Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday. "We are fighting a lot for player welfare because the schedule is crazy."

"Sometimes we have to consider everything and I think we are in conversations with FIFA. It's difficult because I understand that the fans want to see football," he added. "We have five subs now, but we have in our team a couple of injuries that make it more difficult to rotate. We are playing every few days, but it's how it is and we have to step up."

Chelsea are leading Group E with seven points in the Champions League. If they defeat Red Bull Salzburg at Red Bull Arena in Wals-Siezenheim on Tuesday, they will secure qualification for the knockout stage.