Guus Hiddink has hit out at the Football Association for its decision to schedule Chelsea's FA Cup meeting against Everton 24 hours earlier than planned.
The Blues face a fixture pileup in the coming weeks, as they meet Stoke City and Norwich City in the Premier League, before taking on Paris Saint-Germain in Europe and Everton a few days later.
Chelsea's progression in the cup means that their meeting with Liverpool, initially scheduled for March 13, will now have to be rearranged for a later date.
Hiddink cites a hamstring injury picked up by Pedro less than seven minutes into his side's victory over Southampton as a key reason behind why more attention should be given to exactly when games are played.
"[Pedro] got a problem with his hamstring," he is quoted as saying by ITV Sport. "We'll see [what his diagnosis is]. We have a tight schedule - Norwich on Tuesday and then Stoke and PSG. Then, surprisingly, the Everton game was put on a Saturday instead of a Sunday.
"Normally we should have played Liverpool on the Sunday. I don't know who has decided that, all of a sudden. It was astonishing that people could change the kickoff time. We have PSG on Wednesday night. Hopefully it doesn't go into extra time.
"The players, not just Chelsea players, need time when the intensity of the league is like this. The medical people at the FA and the Premier League should make this known as well. We have to protect the players."
Chelsea secured their first back-to-back league wins of the season by edging out Southampton on Saturday, taking them up to 11th place in the table.
Daniel Lewis
