Five players who look over the hill.
A look at five players who started young and now look burned out relatively early in their careers, featuring Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney and others…
1) Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
Sluggish and off the pace, Wayne Rooney is on a nine-game goal drought in the Premier League, looking nowhere near the player we thought he’d be when he first burst onto the scene at Everton as a 16-year-old. Little surprise that the Manchester United striker is tired after such a long career at the top level.
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2) Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea)
Another who first started playing regularly at just 17, Cesc Fabregas started to show some signs of burnout towards the end of his time with Arsenal, while he had similar fitness problems at Barcelona and is now really on poor form with Chelsea.
3) Radamel Falcao (Chelsea)
Although he has only been in Europe relatively recently, Radamel Falcao has still been playing a large amount of games for a long time now and no longer looks capable of running defenders ragged like he used to.
4) Theo Walcott (Arsenal)
Having broken through at Southampton when he was still only 16, Theo Walcott is another who is feeling the effects of an early start to his career with some worrying performances and an even worse injury record for Arsenal.
5) Angel Di Maria (PSG)
A wonderkid in his time in Argentina and with Benfica, Angel Di Maria has barely had a break in recent years and no longer looks his old self after an awful season at Manchester United last year prior to his move to PSG.
6) Bastian Schweinsteiger (Manchester United)
Struggling for fitness this season, Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola felt Bastian Schweinsteiger may now be past his best, having been another to start his career very young and to play a huge amount of games for club and country every season.