Chelsea legend and technical and performance advisor Petr Cech has slammed the Premier League's decision to reschedule the Blues' fixture against Brighton and Hove Albion for Tuesday 18 January.
The clash was originally set to take place in February whilst Chelsea are competing in the Club World Cup and therefore has been brought forward.
Writing for Chelsea's official club website, Cech slammed the decision made by the Premier League to schedule the game for the new selected date.
He wrote: "We therefore found it disappointing to hear today that our Premier League match against Brighton, originally scheduled for when we are now due to participate in the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, has been rescheduled for Tuesday 18 January when we believe there are clearly more sensible dates in that week for this fixture to be played.
"Once again, we are extremely concerned about the welfare of our players in all of this and we are puzzled why Wednesday 19 January was not considered as an alternative date seeing as this would not compromise either team as we both play our next games the following Sunday 23 January."
It is clear that the club would have benefitted from another days rest as the fixtures pile up for Thomas Tuchel's men, who are still involved in up to five competitions.
Whilst the Premier League looks out of reach, with Manchester City clear at the top of the table, Chelsea still have a chance to win the Carabao Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and Club World Cup this season.
"We are already fulfilling fixtures with depleted squads. As it stands, we have fulfilled all of our fixture commitments to date, despite not being able to start our desired starting 11 for some games over this period in which we have been playing two games a week. Scheduling us to play three games in seven days means the players’ welfare, fitness and wellbeing will be severely compromised," Cech continued.
"We acknowledge this is the price of success and we would never complain about that. What we do ask for is that our players are given more consideration when these decisions are made. When there was a rare opportunity for player welfare to be prioritised, we have let them down again."
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