PSG start title defence with mounting injury concerns

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There is the sense that the new season gets up and running for real this week for Paris Saint-Germain as they begin their defence of the Champions League title amid doubts as to how much longer their squad can handle being pushed to the limit by a crowded calendar.

PSG host Atalanta on Wednesday for their first game in Europe, three and a half months after their stunning 5-0 destruction of Inter Milan in last season’s final in Munich.

Luis Enrique’s team will also entertain Bayern, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United in the league phase, with trips to Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Athletic Bilbao and to Lisbon to face Sporting on the horizon too.

Those are tough games, although PSG’s poor start in last season’s Champions League has shown that they might not need to be at their very best immediately.

The French champions lost three of eight league phase games last season, but still won Europe’s elite club competition for the first time following a dazzling run of form from the turn of the year.

The concern now, however, is that last season’s exertions could catch up with them and seriously jeopardise their chances of retaining the trophy.

The Parisians played 65 games during 2024/25, in a season spanning 11 months. That included 17 matches in the Champions League and seven in the Club World Cup, where their marathon campaign concluded with a 3-0 loss to Chelsea in mid-July.

Three weeks later they were back for pre-season training, and a week after that they started the new campaign against Tottenham in the UEFA Super Cup.

Fast forward a month and PSG — who won the Super Cup on penalties — have won their first four games in Ligue 1 but it looks like the recent efforts are beginning to catch up with them.

Ballon d’Or favourite Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue are out for several weeks with muscle injuries suffered playing for France, while Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Lee Kang-in and Lucas Beraldo came off hurt in Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Lens.

“It happens to everyone. It is a bit of a difficult time for us because we have a lot of players injured,” said Luis Enrique, the coach with his own arm in a sling after fracturing a collarbone in a cycling accident.

“I am calm about it and I hope we will manage to overcome it.”

It is not solely luck that PSG avoided serious injuries last season, owing much to the coach’s management of the squad.

© Agence France-Presse

Photo: Xavier Laine/Getty Images

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