Raphael Varane the latest World Cup victim of football treadmill 

IN TEARS: Manchester United's French defender Raphael Varane (C) is consoled by Manchester United's Argentinian defender Lisandro Martinez (L) and Manchester United's Portuguese defender Diogo Dalot (2nd R) as he leaves the pitch after picking up an injury. Pic: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images

Premier League: Chelsea 1 Manchester United 1 

Raphael Varane is the latest high-profile player to fear his World Cup dream is over, after the Manchester United and France defender was injured in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Saturday evening.

Varane pulled up with what looked like a hamstring injury after attempting to tackle Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and needed lengthy treatment before leaving the Stamford Bridge pitch in tears, and although Erik Ten Hag said it will be a day or two before the extent of the injury is known, the player's reaction said it all.

Chelsea already have two players ruled out of the World Cup, which begins in a month's time; England's Reece James and Varane's compatriot N'Golo Kante, and there are sure to be more players fearing the same fate in the final four weeks before the Premier League comes to a halt.

Cesar Azpilicueta, the Chelsea captain, sympathised with Varane and blamed the relentless schedule, with clubs in European competition playing every few days.

“It's difficult and it's sad because as players you want to go to the World Cup, but we have this schedule where we have to play for our club and do our best.

“The truth is that we are fighting a lot for player welfare because the schedule is crazy. Sometimes we have to consider everything and I think we are in conversations with FIFA. It's difficult because I understand that the fans want to see football. We have five subs now but we have in our team a couple of injuries that makes it more difficult to rotate. We are playing every few days, but it's how it is and we have to step up.” 

Azpilicueta also makes the point that players cannot afford to think about the risk of injury when playing club football. “We cannot have any second thoughts on the World Cup because there's no point. An injury can happen if the World Cup is at the end of the season or in the last training session before the first game of the World Cup, it can happen at any time."

His manager Graham Potter agrees that players should not go out on the pitch worrying about the prospect of getting injured, but added: “I don't think it affects their performances and they're fully focused but they're also human beings.

“If we don't believe that they are thinking subconsciously, that in three weeks' time there is a World Cup, then I think we're a bit a bit naive.” 

Potter points out it is a unique situation because international players will go straight from club football to a short preparation period before the World Cup begins a week later. “Normally you'd have a build-up phase and a bit more time, but they will go in from (domestic) competitions and within a week be playing a World Cup match. It's incredible but we can't do anything about it. We just have to help the players as best as we can and make sure they're not in dangerous situations for their own health.” 

It would have been an even worse day for United if Casemiro had not rescued a point with his first goal for the club, deep in stoppage time. It earned United the point they deserved, having outplayed Chelsea for most of the game and created far more chances.

United's keeper David de Gea hardly had a thing to do until the 87th minute, when Jorginho put a penalty kick past him with Chelsea's only shot on target, after Scott McTominay had wrestled Armando Broja to the ground.

At the opposite end of the pitch, Kepa Arrizabalaga had been in sparkling form again to keep Chelsea in the game with a number of fine saves to keep out Marcus Rashford twice, Antony and Bruno Fernandes.

The world's most expensive goalkeeper looked set to leave Chelsea in the summer having lost his place to Edouard Mendy two years ago, but is back as Potter's number one. Azpilicueta said: “I'm really happy for him. He had tough moments, but you know his strength has always been to stay positive, to train hard every day. That shows the mentality from him. You know, to be strong to keep working hard to wait for his chance.” 

CHELSEA: Arrizabalaga 9; Chalobah 7, Silva 7, Cucurella 6 (Kovacic 36); Azpilicueta 5, Loftus-Cheek 7 (Chukwuemeka 79), Jorginho 6, Chilwell 6; Sterling 6 (Broja 79), Aubameyang 5 (Pulisic 74), Mount 8 

MAN UTD: De Gea 7; Dalot 7, Martinez 7, Varane 7 (Lindelof 59), Shaw 7; Fernandes 7, Casemiro 9, Eriksen 7 (McTominay 80); Sancho 6 (Fred 51), Antony 6, Rashford 6 (Elanga 80) 

Ref: Stuart Atwell 8/10