2nd Opinion

For a decade now, as the number and pace of matches increase for top-level players, the issue of burnout, particularly towards the end of a season, has come to the fore. Unfairly, some fans have suggested all they do is a few days of light training and an evening match to collect their wage. Those allegations, however, cannot be levelled at Mark Hughes. He played twice in one day and did so without making a fuss. Mark Hughes represented Bayern Munich and Wales the same day Was it an incredible act of professionalism? No, this was a man who enjoyed his football. Here’s the story of how Hughes hot-footed across the continent to play two games in the space of a few hours. With English football in dire straits after the tragic Heysel disaster, Hughes, like many professionals in that period, left the domestic scene to try his hand in Europe. In the summer of 1986, then-Barcelona manager Terry Venables completed a sensational double swoop from his home country to sign Everton’s G...