When Eoin Morgan said at the end of the World Cup group stage, during a carnival of cricket that would eventually carry his team to glory, that the experience was proving so intense that “I can’t wait to get away from a cricket field”, there will have been many sportsmen who understood precisely what he was feeling. While fans enjoy the remorseless drama of these great competitions, those actually playing them find they exact a psychological and emotional toll.
In October 2018, with many of the players who starred in the World Cup in Russia that summer disappointing in the Premier League, Liverpool’s Croatian defender Dejan Lovren asked for patience. “A lot of the Croatian players are exhausted emotionally,” he said. “It is the same for England, trying to get over not going into the final. Then you have such a short period of rest. It is not easy to adapt straight away. It takes so much out of you, emotionally and physically. All the players who went to the World Cup are having this period of adaptation. Eventually they will get their best form back, but it will take time.”
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