Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has called for clubs to be allowed bigger squads to mitigate the impact of the schedule after his injury crisis deepened this week.
Postecoglou may be without a single senior centre-back for this weekend's visit of Wolves after Radu Dragusin was forced off with an ankle complaint in the Boxing Day defeat by Nottingham Forest and Ben Davies suffered a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury.
Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero were among the seven senior players missing for Spurs at the City Ground as they suffered their fourth loss in the last five Premier League games, while Djed Spence will be suspended this weekend after a late red card.
Premier League clubs and those competing in Europe are limited to 25 senior players but Postecoglou believes either the calendar or the rules must change.
"One of two things needs to happen: either you somehow change the fixture schedule, which doesn't seem feasible, or you allow clubs bigger squads," Postecoglou said. "Then you have other issues with that, as well.
"The attrition rate you're seeing, it's not just us [but] we're going through a particularly bad moment. Newcastle went through it last year and it affected them pretty badly, they were obviously in the Champions League as well and probably didn't have the squad to cope with it.
"It hits certain clubs at different times and is probably becoming more prevalent and for all of us it's a challenge as to how we navigate this process to keep our players healthy. It's not just a physical thing, it's a mental thing.
"For us it's been constant since August and we're not even halfway through the year, and they're not going to get a break now."
Spurs will have their first week off since August - excluding international breaks - between Sunday's game and the visit of Newcastle on January 4.
Postecoglou believes his side have had a raw deal from the schedule but is hopeful of welcoming back forwards Mikey Moore and Richarlison after the Wolves game.
"We’ve always for some bizarre reason seemed to have a day less than every opponent we’ve played so far so it affects us both ways," he said.
"We all know how it works. We’re at the behest of higher authorities and broadcasters when it comes to fixturing. There’s very little say we have apart from accepting the fact this is going to be our schedule.
"Mikey and Richy are in the final phases," he added. "Next week they can start training. We've got a bit of a gap before the Newcastle game. The plan is Mikey and Richy come back into first-team training next week."
Postecoglou was hopeful of having Davies fit again to face Wolves for the first time since he pulled up in the defeat to Bournemouth on December 5.
But the Wales international is the latest Spurs player to suffer a setback shortly after returning to training or action after Wilson Odobert, Van de Ven, Romero and Richarlison.
"That's been our major problem this year: guys who are coming back from injury rather than us losing players, as such," Postecoglou said.
"Knock on wood but the core group of players who are training and playing games have no issues. So we're looking at those things and why they're happening. It's certainly happened too often this year where guys have come back and they're the ones who are missing.
"I think just about all of them, apart from Vic [Guglielmo Vicario], are recurrences of an injury. Even with Romero, it was a different injury, but it's still a guy coming back, so it's something we're looking at."