Gareth Southgate has suggested players have been put at risk after the Premier League season kicked off too soon after the conclusion of the summer’s World Cup.

The England manager, whose side confront Spain in their latest Nations League fixture on Monday, expressed sympathy for his counterparts at club level who had been put in an “impossible situation”, picking players left jaded by their lack of recovery time since Russia.

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Southgate admitted some of those who were denied rest and, subsequently, a proper pre-season have lacked “psychological freshness” as a result, for all that the likes of Harry Kane have insisted they are fit and ready to represent their country.

“I think it’s psychological freshness, rather than physical,” said Southgate, who is expected to draft Harry Winks, Joe Gomez and Kieran Trippier into his side for the daunting tie at the Estadio Benito Villamarín.

“Everyone adapts their training load appropriately. But I think when you see the league, there are a lot of teams who haven’t started yet at the level when they are at their maximum. There have been a lot of injuries across certainly our league, too. I don’t know about the rest of Europe.

“I don’t really understand why our league started so early but they did, so it’s been a really difficult situation for the clubs. Some of the clubs couldn’t field a team without ... look at Tottenham Hotspur, who had so many players in the semi-finals of the World Cup. They had to put players straight into matches on the back of very little pre-season. It was an impossible situation for the coaches really.”

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The Premier League season began on 10 August, only 26 days after France’s victory against Croatia at the Luzhniki Stadium and 27 since Belgium defeated England in the third‑place play-off in St Petersburg. La Liga and Serie A began the following weekend and the Bundesliga a week later still.

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“I didn’t really know [why] and I hadn’t looked into when the season started until when we got back from the tournament,” Southgate said. “Maybe they were expecting us to be back by the end of June. I assumed the rest of the world were going to be there until the middle of July.

“It’s always easy to make a comment like that and not know the complex scenario the decision makers had to go to, because that happens to me quite a lot. But everybody knew when the final was going to be, and the semi-final, and that the players would be away for a period of time.

“It’s a bit like our clubs in the Champions League. Some of the rest of the leagues in Europe help them and adjust the fixture list [to allow their teams more time to recover and prepare for Champions League ties]. I’m sure our clubs would appreciate that because, in the end, they’re representing English football and we want them all to do well.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harry Kane has not been at his best so far this season. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images via Reuters

Southgate has lost the likes of Jesse Lingard, Dele Alli, Fabian Delph, Danny Rose and Danny Welbeck to injury for this get-together, with Kane having now gone six games at this level without a goal to suggest he is not at his best. The national manager is not alone in expressing concern with Ed Woodward, Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman, known to have had reservations over the start date.

The Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren, a key member of the Croatia team who were beaten in the final in Moscow, also echoed Southgate’s sentiments. “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 so easy to adapt straight away.”

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Lovren, who had returned from Russia with a stomach injury which had troubled him towards the end of last season, did not feature for Liverpool until the end of September.

“But all the players who went to the World Cup are having this period of adaptation,” he added. “Even [Mohamed] Salah. Luka [Modric] said to me he is struggling. It takes so much out of you, emotionally and physically. Eventually they will get their best form back, but it will take time.”

Against the Spanish, who have gone 38 competitive home games without defeat, stretching back to June 2003, England will retain the 4-3-3 system used in the goalless draw with Croatia on Friday. Winks will gain his second cap, replacing the suspended Jordan Henderson, who has remained with the travelling party in Spain, with Gomez stepping in for John Stones at centre-half. Trippier is expected to stand in for Kyle Walker, who has been troubled by a minor groin problem.

Jadon Sancho, the Borussia Dortmund teenager who enjoyed a 12-minute cameo in Rijeka, is expected to come off the bench. “I would think it’s highly likely he comes into the game,” Southgate said. “He’s dipped his toe in, he’s done well and it’s on to another level of challenge next.”