Martin O'Neill is to closely monitor Aston Villa duo Gabriel Agbonlahor and James Milner amid fears they could be the victims of football burnout.
O'Neill is worried 13-goal Agbonlahor and winger Milner will not have time to recover sufficiently after 12 months of non-stop football will culminate in the Under-21 European Championship finals in June.
Agbonlahor could also feature in Fabio Capello's senior squad for the World Cup qualifiers with Kazhakstan and Andorra immediately prior to the under-21 tournament in Sweden.
O'Neill said: "There doesn't seem to be any respite. At the end of the season, players go away for international matches. That is fine. They are major qualifying games in major competitions so you accept that.
"But then we have some members of our squad who will be involved in the under-21 competition in Sweden so, when they arrive back for pre-season, they will maybe have had four or five days off.
"That is just not enough. For next season, we will have to monitor them, give them time off when they would have been training for us, so the benefit doesn't go to the football club, it goes to the international team. What they need at the end of the season is a break before they go back again otherwise people can suffer from burnout, no question about that."
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Far be it from me to question a wise old head like MON, but if he's so concerned about Milner and Agbonlahor suffering from burn-out next season, why is he playing them in what is effectively a meaningless end of season away game at Fulham? Wouldn't it be better to have given them a rest and give some valuable first-team experience to the likes of Delfounso?
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