LONDON (AP) — Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes the accumulation of long-term injuries experienced by some clubs is an “accident waiting to happen” because of the increased demands on players in a congested soccer calendar.

Arteta said he felt a “big pain in the tummy” after seeing Kai Havertz pick up a serious hamstring injury at the end of a light training session in Dubai that will rule the Germany forward out for the rest of the season.

It further stretches Arsenal’s resources up front, with Gabriel Jesus having ruptured his ACL, winger Bukayo Saka having not played since December because of a hamstring issue and another wide player, Gabriel Martinelli, set to miss the next month also with a hamstring injury.

Two more games per team were added to the first stage of this season's Champions League, while Arsenal also went deep in the English League Cup — it was eliminated by Newcastle in the two-legged semifinals — and is in a title race with Liverpool in the Premier League.

An expanded and revamped Club World Cup, which takes place in the United States at the end of the season and lasts a month, also extends the schedule for many teams, though not Arsenal this year. Some players have openly complained that it is detrimental to their performance and health and the busy match schedule is facing legal challenges and the possibility of strike action.

For Arteta, it’s no surprise to see injury rates soar at Arsenal because of the extra load on players and what he perceives to be an increased intensity in modern-day soccer.

“You cannot prove it and the evidence we can provide is very limited in many aspects and every case is very different but already some of them (injuries) we know are based on load and minutes. It's inevitable,” Arteta said Friday. “We have players who have been injured who have played 130 games over the last two seasons. In the end, it’s an accident waiting to happen if you continue to load and load and load.

“Is this season an accumulation of that? Is it the stress of that? Is it luck? Is it preparation? Is it methodology? There are a lot of factors. It’s very difficult to point at something but the schedule that's planned is super-demanding and for certain players, especially explosive players, it’s a real issue.”

Arteta says players ‘train less than ever’

Havertz appears to have been unlucky in picking up his injury, with Arteta explaining how the German stretched his leg to stop a shot at a set-piece and “felt his hamstring go.”

Given the number of injuries sustained by Arsenal players this season — others to have had long spells out include Ben White, Martin Odegaard, Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu — some have questioned whether Arteta’s training methods are to blame.

Maybe that was the reason why Arteta was eager to point out that Arsenal’s players now “train less than ever” and go into a deeper explanation about how too many games — and, as a result, not enough training — affects players’ recovery.

“The muscle is undertrained and then you expose the muscle and the tendon to an exposure that they cannot absorb because the tendon needs 72 hours to recover,” Arteta said. “A lot of people talk about what we're doing outside. It’s not outside, it’s inside.

“When you have to load that muscle for two or three or six or eight weeks that you haven’t in training, the risk of injury is much bigger — one, because the tendon is not recovered, and then it’s not prepared to absorb the load and stress you are going to put it under every three days.”

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