Jordan Henderson believes the Premier League is not taking player welfare seriously.
Liverpool were one of a handful of clubs to back proposals to defer one of the match days in the Christmas schedule at Monday’s meeting of top-flight sides.
League chiefs are set to outline their reasons for pressing ahead later this week despite a spate of positive Covid-19 cases seeing games postponed.
However Henderson has voiced concerns about the lack of consideration given to the toll that a congested run of fixtures impacts on players.
“I don’t think people can appreciate how intense it is until you actually see it first-hand,” he told BBC Sport.
“Football to us is everything and we want to be able to perform at the highest level every time we set foot on the pitch.
“And unfortunately, in this period it is difficult to do that. That has been like this for a few years now and it has been difficult.
“But then, on top of that, you chuck in Covid and it becomes even harder and even worse. I am concerned that nobody really takes player welfare seriously.
“I think decisions get made – of course we want to play as footballers, we want to get out there and play.
“But I am worried about player welfare and I don’t think anybody does take that seriously enough, especially in this period, when Covid is here.
“We will try to have conversations in the background and try to have some sort of influence going forward.
“But at the minute I don’t feel the players get the respect they deserve in terms of having somebody being able to speak for them independently and having the power to say actually this isn’t right for player welfare.”