There was no let up for Moises Caicedo during the final international break of 2025.
The Chelsea midfielder captained his country this week in Ecuador’s 2-0 victory over New Zealand in New Jersey, playing the full 90 minutes just as he did five days prior against Canada in Toronto.
With Ecuador already qualified for next summer’s World Cup, both were friendly affairs. The second of those games finished in the early hours of Wednesday morning before the 24-year-old set off making the long journey back to the capital with Chelsea in action away to Burnley in Saturday’s lunch-time kick off.
Caicedo’s midfield partner Enzo Fernandez was given a rare week off, dropping out of the Argentina squad that took on Angola. But it was business as usual for Caicedo.
It’s not an ideal situation. Caicedo, evolving into a metronomic presence in Enzo Maresca’s midfield, has played more minutes than anyone else in the squad, racking up 1,262 in 16 appearances.
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He was also among the clutch of players to rack up over 4,000 minutes of playing time last season as part of that gruelling campaign that only ended in July in New Jersey at the Club World Cup.
From the perspective of a Chelsea fan, the sight of Caicedo playing two full friendlies heading into the busiest period of the season will have had them pulling their hair out.
Leaving the comfort of Cobham inevitably means there is less control over what Caicedo will have been doing day to day with the national team. But Chelsea will have remained in constant communication with their Ecuador counterparts to ensure there is a tailor-made training plan ready and waiting for the former Brighton midfielder upon his return.
‘They will have been communicating with the staff from his international team throughout the international break,’ Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare, told Metro.
‘They will have been chatting, exchanging information on how he has trained, what that has looked like over the last week or so. I imagine Chelsea will have provided some sort of level of recommendation over things they would have liked to see continue to be done with him from a management perspective.
‘They will also have been following up to get information on what their training looked like, tracking his physical output in those games. They have been consuming that information throughout the international break to prepare for him coming back in so they can build a detailed and robust plan for him.’
Caicedo has been ever-present in Chelsea’s starting XI in the Premier League this season, failing to start just one game against Nottingham Forest immediately after the October international break with a knock.
Following the trip to Turf Moor, the Blues have huge games against Barcelona and Arsenal in the Champions League and Premier League respectively. While midfield options are short given Romeo Lavia’s latest setback with Dario Essugo out until the New Year, those big games coupled with Caicedo’s busy week could make resting the Ecuadorian this weekend a necessity.
’I think we will continue to see rotation of players like that, as they get back. Especially given the amount of travel time involved,’ Smith said.
‘Just that alone, the impact of travel and jet lag itself is a significant factor for them to manage and I’m sure they will be thinking about that.
‘No doubt they will have been thinking about all these scenarios and communicated this with the international staff. All this is done to build that detailed and robust plan for him for him once he is back which takes into account exactly what he has done while he is away.’