Freddie Burns blasts Premiership schedule and questions rugby's commitment to player welfare

Former England star Freddie Burns has launched a scathing attack on rugby bosses for the ‘brutal’ fixture list being imposed on the country’s top players.

Premiership Rugby chief Darren Childs claims “every single club is absolutely on board and totally supportive” of a schedule which will require clubs to play seven games in four weeks when the league restarts.

But Burns, who is between clubs having left Bath and signed to play in Japan, described the revised schedule as “madness”.

Burns: 'Player welfare is a term we hear a lot about but I don’t think it’s quite backed up by anyone in the game' (Getty)

“First and foremost we all want rugby to survive and we want to do what we can to make sure that in a couple of years’ time there is still a Premiership and that those clubs steeped in history are still around,” he said.

“But I am speaking out because the players are being penned in a corner. They have been trapped with pay cuts and now these rumours of seven games in 28 days.

“It’s just madness. The physical toll on the body is going to be brutal. Player welfare is a term we hear a lot about but I don’t think it’s quite backed up by anyone in the game.”

Burns: 'They’re taking money off the players and asking them to do more for less' (Getty)

Three midweek rounds are scheduled and some clubs will find themselves playing once every four days in order to get the season finished less than a month before the next one kicks off.

Burns argues it is "hard enough to recover on a six-day turnaround" and tweeted: "Players just being bent over the barrel in my opinion".

He added: “Many people in the world have lost their jobs. Are rugby players in the worst position imaginable? No they’re not. But they put their health on the line every week in a hugely physical game."

Burns scores for Leicester against Racing 92 in 2016 (above) and helping Manu Tuilagi bring down New Zealand's Aaron Cruden (below) for England in 2014 (Getty)

New Zealand All Blacks Aaron Cruden (C) is tackled by England's Freddie Burns (L) and Manusamoa Tuilagi during the third rugby union test match in Hamilton on June 21, 2014. AFP PHOTO / Michael BradleyMICHAEL BRADLEY/AFP/Getty Images (Getty)

"Boys are desperate to play," acknowledged Burns, who won five caps for England during a career at Gloucester, Leicester and Bath.

"Everyone wants to see rugby back on the TV, clubs want the money coming back in and players understand this. They want to do what they can to get rugby back to where it was.

"No player is going to turn round and say they need a rest. But someone outside of the players has to be looking out for them and saying ‘hang about’ - and I don’t think anyone is.

"It’s just not right in my opinion. They’re taking money off the players and asking them to do more for less.”