The fear of injury is impacting on the mental health of players, according to a survey by the Professional Footballers’ Association.

The survey found 68% of more than 1,000 male and female PFA members questioned last season identified this fear as having a major negative impact.

The finding comes after Manchester City midfielder Rodri, prior to suffering a season-ending injury, said players were “close” to striking over increased workload.

Online abuse also had a negative impact on mental well-being for 28% of those surveyed.

PFA director of player well-being Dr Michael Bennett said football “is an incredibly insecure career for many” with players often finding themselves on short-term contracts and feeling “as if they have very little control over their futures”.

“What our survey results highlight is that these ‘on-pitch’ concerns – like injury and performance – can and do affect footballers’ mental health,” Bennett said.

“This exercise is incredibly important to us and allows us to see ‘the person’ behind the player, and we’re always encouraged that players choose to disclose these concerns with us.”

The PFA is part of two separate legal challenges against football’s governing body Fifa over a perceived lack of consultation over the fixture calendar.

Following Rodri’s claim that players were close to taking strike action, City manager Pep Guardiola said any changes must be player-led – comments echoed by Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca who said there is “no doubt” the schedule is too congested.

A recent report said a player welfare ‘red line’ was a maximum of between 50 and 60 matches per season, depending on a player’s age. Rodri played 63 competitive games for club and country last season.

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti said the club are even considering giving players holidays during the season to cope with fixture congestion.

On-pitch performance (45%) and the fear of being dropped (41%) were among the other concerns raised in the PFA survey, while alcohol use (17%) and gambling (15%) were the leading ‘non-industry’ hazards negatively impacting player well-being.

The PFA said its club visits led to 330 well-being interventions, including 60 direct referrals for therapeutic support, while 530 current and former PFA members received mental health support from the union’s partner Sporting Chance clinic.

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson is expected to be out until at least mid-November with a hamstring injury.

The Brazil international was hurt in the 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday and was replaced by Vitezslav Jaros after 79 minutes.

Liverpool do not expect Alisson to be back before the next international break, which takes place 11-19 November following a round of league games.

Prior to that, the Premier League leaders face top-flight matches against Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton and Aston Villa, while they play RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League and Brighton in the Carabao Cup.

Caoimhin Kelleher missed the game at Palace because of illness but is expected to replace Alisson in goal.

“It is quite clear then that he [Kelleher] is the number two,” said Liverpool boss Arne Slot following the game at Selhurst Park.

“Otherwise, the last time Alisson was injured I would have played Vit, but I played Caoimhin. So Caoimhin is the number two and did really well.”

Kelleher came in for Alisson when the 32-year-old had a spell out in September, playing in a league win against Bournemouth and League Cup victory against West Ham.

Liverpool’s first game following the November international break is at Southampton on 24 November, before they then face Real Madrid, Manchester City, Newcastle United and local rivals Everton.

Players from across the football landscape – in England and overseas – were quickly corralled.

Among them: England Under-20 international Charlie Webster, signed for an undisclosed fee from Chelsea after spending last season on-loan in the Netherlands with Heerenveen, Costa Rica international Alejandro Bran, a loan signing from Major League Soccer side Minnesota United, and Terence Vancooten, a Guyana international whose move from Stevenage is understood to have made him one of Burton’s most expensive ever signings.

Burton’s spending has had rivals talking of their new financial flex,, external but Hareide says “speculation that new owners are throwing money at it” was to be expected – despite not wanting to divulge what the rebuild has cost.

“We are not splashing cash at all,” he added.

“I feel we have been smart. I don’t want to disclose any fees, but I can confirm that Terence was a signature signing for us because he is an establish League One player, who performed well last season and he has proven attributes that fit our model and style of player – a backbone we want to have at the club.”

For Hareide it’s a “brick-by-brick” project, about getting everyone “aboard the same boat and rowing in the same direction”.

And when jokingly asked about its similarities to flatpack furniture, he laughed as he said: “I’m Norwegian, we are envious of what the Swedes have done with Ikea”.

And in Tom Davidson, NFG have a Swedish founder who has gone on to become deputy chairman at Burton.

The consortium around him has been “handpicked”, Davidson explains, with Burton Albion the focus of what he calls “dynamic Nordic cooperation” whose aim is to try establish a “sustainable and stable” League One club whose way of working can help shape the game in the countries that each stakeholder represents.

“Can we make a difference from the Nordic scene in the number one football county in the world? The responsibilities, the challenges and the opportunities are massive with going into an English football club,” Davidson said.

“Club football today is so big, so there is space not only for the giants, but for other clubs with other values – smaller vibrant clubs with a big heart and who maybe have a smile on their face.”

At a club with an image shaped by the town it represents, whose stadium holds just under 7,000 spectators and shares a training ground with England’s national teams, Davidson is adamant they can carve out a place as “one of the coolest most progressive clubs”.

“This was the brewing capital of England, we are called the Brewers, we have a fat guy kicking a ball on the shield – we can do so much cool fans stuff at the stadium with this,” he added.

“Burton is a fantastic underdog club, from this little town that has had a miracle journey. We can maybe have a unique and positive space in football.”

Aberdeen striker Kevin Nisbet has been called up to Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures against Croatia and Portugal.

The 27-year-old has not played for his country since a substitute appearance in a 2-0 win over Georgia in June 2023, but replaces Lawrence Shankland in the squad after helping Aberdeen to 13 consecutive wins at the start of this season.

Nisbet joined the Pittodrie club on loan from Millwall over the summer and has scored three goals in seven outings for Jimmy Thelin’s side.

He joins Aberdeen teammates Nicky Devlin and Jack MacKenzie in the squad, while Shankland’s withdrawal – after he missed training on Tuesday – adds to an ever-growing injury list.

Captain Andy Robertson was also not at Tuesday’s training session in Glasgow, along with Scott McTominay, Kenny McLean and John Souttar.

First-choice goalkeeper Angus Gunn (ribs) and left-back Greg Taylor (calf) had already been ruled out of the double header, with 10 others unavailable for selection, including influential vice-captain John McGinn.

Scotland visit Zagreb on Saturday before hosting Portugal three days later.

Portugal lead Group A1 on six points, with Croatia and Poland both on three and Scotland yet to get off the mark.

OKTAGON MMA is days away from putting on one of the highest-attended MMA events in history.

With more than 58,000 tickets sold for Saturday’s OKTAGON 62 at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany, the budding European-based organization will draw what could be the biggest crowed ever for an all-time MMA fight.

The UFC’s announced attendance record sits at 57,127 for UFC 243, which took place at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia in October 2019 with a Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya middleweight title headliner.

The only higher attendance figured have come out of the now-defunct PRIDE organization in Japan. A hybrid PRIDE/K-1 kickboxing event in August 2002 claims to have more than 91,000 seats filled, while the all-MMA PRIDE Final Conflict 2003 show announced 67,451. There is no formal confirmation of these numbers, however.

OKATAGON MMA promoters Ondrej Novotny and Pavol Neruda claim their figure is entirely authentic, and fans from all over the world have purchased tickets to be on the scene.

“It’s definitely various spots, but most of them are definitely from Frankfurt and the whole of Germany,” Novotny told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “A few thousand coming form Czech Republic and then people who like big events. Not just MMA, but big events, they are coming from all over the world. Around 46 with different kinds of people from business, show business or also fighters and fans.”

Novotny said there are approximately 600 tickets still remaining, and encouraged fans to snatch them up to be part of a historic show. The organization is going all-out to make it a spectacle for both those at the venue and watching from home.

“We have almost 500 different kinds of lights,” Novotny said. “Some crazy fires and fireworks inside the arena. Definitely there’s some special entrances but we don’t want to spoil them before. There will be some superstars from the German rap scene. We’ve got a halftime show with John Newman, who is a crazy DJ who was just in Tomorrowland. He has many hits. It’s going to be really crazy.”

The attempt for OKTAGON MMA to differentiate itself from a production perspective is fully intentional. They want to put on events that can’t be compared to others in the industry, and for a show of this magnitude, the ante was upped event further.

“We will have a special drone which is allowed to fly above the people and it will go into the live stream,” Neruda said. “We have a special 360 degree camera with a VR set. It will be a crazy experience. We also have cameras on the referees that are live. As far as I know we are the only one who is doing it live. You can see it from an action perspective. Plus open scoring. A lot of these elements that make to entertained for the whole night.

“We love it. All the members of OKTAGON team, if you have this passion about something it’s never enough. You are never satisfied. You achieve something, you want more and to make it better and entertain people more. We are always going to events that are musical or another type of entertainment around the world or sports event, we watch what’s going on and try to inspire and bring it to the world of MMA.”

OKTAGON 62, which can be ordered via online pay-per-view from the company website, will feature 11 bouts and three championship fights. There is a local flair to the headliner, with German athletes Christian Eckerlin and Christian Jungwirth fighting for a special “King of Germany” belt.

“The main event is the biggest thing to ever happen on German soil,” Neruda said. “It’s Christian Jungwirth vs. Christian Eckerlin. Two huge stars. Very similar styles of fighter. One is from Frankfurt, and another from Stuttgart. Both used to be pro football players who dreamed on one day playing in a big stadium, and now it turned out the event they will be in a stadium will not be as a football players, but as fighters. We call this title ‘The King of Germany.’ It’s a welterweight fight. It’s going to be crazy. We prepared a special belt.”

LAS VEGAS – It wouldn’t be the first time a champion kickboxer transitioned to MMA to chase a former foe holding a UFC title, and Artem Vakhitov isn’t hiding the fact he hopes to face Alex Pereira again.

Vakhitov (3-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) earned a UFC contract by finishing Islem Masraf in the first round at Dana White’s Contender Series 75. Now that he’s in the same promotion with UFC light heavyweight champion Pereira (12-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC), the chase is on.

The pair battled twice in kickboxing, splitting decision results in 2021. Neither man denies the storyline in a potential trilogy, much like when Pereira entered the UFC and was fast-tracked to a third, and then fourth, meeting with then-middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

Pereira, 37, who just retained his light heavyweight title by defeating Khalil Rountree in a Fight of the Night main event at UFC 307, flew in to watch Vakhitov, 33, compete at the UFC Apex.

“I had no idea he was going to be here, but as I was walking out, I saw that he was sitting in the audience, and to be honest, it kind of lit the fire a little bit, kind of motivated me even more.” Vakhitov said through an interpreter during a post-fight news conference.”

The motivation worked, as Vakhitov turned in a first-round TKO finish. Not just a motivator from the sideline, Pereira also ended up being the convincing voice urging UFC CEO Dana White to sign him after his performance.

The storyline for a potential meeting in the UFC writes itself. But unlike Adesanya, who couldn’t get over the Pereira hump until their fourth meeting, the series between Vakhitov and Pereira is tied, and there is no animosity between them.

“I respect him and he respects me,” Vakhitov said. “There’s nothing but respect through both of our teams. We had a great history in kickboxing, and when we left that chapter of our life, we left on really good terms. I’ve never had any ill will towards him.

“He also congratulated me on the fight. He said it was a great fight and I told him that we soon will see each other. It’s going to take some time. I have nothing but a sportsman-like interest in seeing him in the octagon. When it happens eventually, I think it’s going to be also done with respect, just like in kickboxing. I really do think that both of us are very much just good sportsmen. We’re respectful, we respect each other’s team, and just going to see each other as fighters.”

Even with the story outlined, Vakhitov said he won’t rush through the chapters. He is well aware of where both he and Pereira are at this point in their careers, and is ready to climb the ladder to eventually reach the top of the division.

Vakhitov is also aware of the pressure that comes with each appearance he makes moving forward, as many will expect him to fulfill the destiny of earning a trilogy with Pereira.

“I thought about eventually there was maybe a possibility that we would fight again,” Vakhitov said. “To be honest, we’re 1-1. That’s what the history books say, but obviously, I think it’s 2-0.

“… A loss today was not an option. We had to come here, we knew we were coming into the cage with the win in mind. I’m sure that going forward, whether it’s debut or other fights, it’s going to be on my shoulders; it’s going to be hanging over me even more because there’s that narrative.”