Gareth Southgate has blamed the Premier League's early start for making his England players are "psychologically tired".

There was just 26 days between the final kick of the World Cup and the opening day of the Premier League season.

England made it to the semi-finals in Russia and Southgate believes the Premier League shouldhave started at the same time as Europe's other major leagues.

Southgate said: "I think it's psychological freshness, rather than physical.

"Everyone adapts their training load appropriately. But I think when you see the league, there are probably a lot of teams that haven't started yet at the level when they are at their maximum.

"There have been lots of injuries across our league, I don't know about the rest of Europe. It is a balance. I don't really understand why our league started so early, but they did, so it is a really difficult situation for the clubs."