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All 20 Premier League clubs had at least five players on international duty, with 59 different countries represented by top-flight stars.

Players on international duty: 17

Forward Mikel Merino is yet to get off the mark for the Gunners this season but scored in Spain’s World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria before netting a hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Turkey.

Winger Noni Madueke started both of England’s World Cup qualifiers and impressed Thomas Tuchel, scoring his first international goal in the 5-0 victory over Serbia, while midfielder Declan Rice netted in the 2-0 victory over Andorra.

Players on international duty: 11

Poland full-back Matty Cash scored a late equaliser to earn a point against the Netherlands before finding the net again in a 3-1 win over Finland.

Cash came off injured at half-time but reports suggest it is nothing serious.

Players on international duty: 13

Players on international duty: 18

Brentford’s club record summer signing Dango Ouattara scored two goals in Burkina Faso’s 6-0 win over Djibouti.

Players on international duty: 11

Yakuba Minteh scored his sixth international goal as Gambia beat Kenya, though fellow Seagulls winger Kaoru Mitoma was rested in Japan’s 2-0 defeat by USA, coming off the bench with half an hour to go.

Players on international duty: 14

Midfielder Hannibal featured twice for Tunisia as they secured their place at next summer’s World Cup, beating Liberia and Equatorial Guinea.

Players on international duty: 14

Spain full-back Marc Cucurella scored in a 3-0 win over Bulgaria while Reece James’ fine cross set up Declan Rice’s England goal against Andorra.

Players on international duty: 12

Marc Guehi was a stalwart in England’s defence across their two World Cup qualifiers, scoring and setting up Ezri Konsa’s first international goal in the 5-0 win over Serbia.

Players on international duty: Eight

Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gana Gueye were part of the Senegal side who staged a dramatic 3-2 win over DR Congo, having fallen 2-0 down in Kinshasa, while striker Beto came off the bench to help Guinea-Bissau beat Djibouti and keep their slim hopes of qualifying for the World Cup alive.

Players on international duty: 11

Nigeria defender Calvin Bassey scored his debut international goal in a 1-1 draw against South Africa while Mexico forward Raul Jimenez was on target in a 2-2 friendly draw against South Korea.

Players on international duty: Five

Players on international duty: 21

British record transfer Alexander Isak made his first appearance of the season following a transfer saga between former club Newcastle United and Liverpool – coming on as a substitute in Sweden’s 2-0 defeat by Kosovo.

Players on international duty: 12

Positives and negatives for Manchester City as striker Erling Haaland scored five goals and set up two more in Norway’s 11-1 thrashing of Moldova but Egypt winger Omar Marmoush has been ruled out of Sunday’s Manchester derby after picking up a knee injury.

Marmoush scored in his country’s 2-0 win over Ethiopia on Friday but went off injured in Tuesday’s goalless draw against Burkina Faso.

Players on international duty: 14

Players on international duty: 12

Summer signing Yoane Wissa scored two and assisted one across his two matches for DR Congo, though the new arrival was taken off after 74 minutes in the 3-2 loss to Senegal, while Anthony Elanga was on target for Sweden in their 2-2 draw with Slovenia.

Players on international duty: 13

Striker Chris Wood perhaps has the furthest to travel for international duty and was on target in New Zealand’s 3-1 defeat by Australia.

Players on international duty: 14

Players on international duty: 20

Senegal’s Pape Sarr scored an 87th-minute winner in a dramatic 3-2 victory over DR Congo.

Players on international duty: 10

Despite West Ham’s tricky start to the season, Lucas Paqueta has scored two goals in three games for the Hammers and continued that fine form into international duty, netting for Brazil in a 3-0 win over Chile.

England midfielder Jarrod Bowen came on as a substitute against Serbia but was unused against Andorra while Czech Republic captain Tomas Soucek was a surprise omission from his country’s friendly against Saudi Arabia.

Players on international duty: 13

Jean-Ricner Bellegarde came through the academies in France but switched allegiance to play for Haiti and made his debut in a goalless draw against Honduras on Friday, impressing enough to earn a second start against Costa Rica.

For R360 – the rebel circuit head-hunting rugby’s top players for a divisive globe-trotting franchise league – questions are mounting.

Not least from World Rugby.

Which stadiums will host matches? Which doctors will be connected to the teams? What are their credentials?

When R360 submitted 120 pages of plans to the global governing body, World Rugby came back with these queries and more.

More than a year out from when they hope to kick off, R360 doesn’t have all the answers yet.

The Council’s next meeting, and therefore the next opportunity for RS60 to become an official part of the rugby calendar, is not until June – just four months before R360’s planned start date of October 2026.

“Everything remains on track,” said an R360 spokesperson over the weekend.

“We’ve been pleased to provide a significant amount of information to World Rugby in relation to regulatory matters and respect the confidentiality of their processes. We look forward to submitting our full plans ahead of their next session.”

But the hold-up has triggered more questions from outside.

Did R360 underestimate World Rugby’s requirements?

Can the league go ahead with such a major factor unresolved so close to kick-off?

If it doesn’t go ahead in 2026, surely 2027 – with the Rugby World Cup dominating attention and calendar space – won’t work?

R360 remains bullish.

A senior figure in the start-up claims that if the World Rugby Council’s September meeting was just a few weeks later, they would have all the information required.

They say background work continues apace on securing talent, venues and broadcasters.

Last month it was reported that more than 160 men’s players have signed to become part of the league, provided it realises it’s grand plans.

Since then R360 have closed further on their target of 200 men’s players. At least 10 of those signed up have played for England.

A timeline to a tournament launch event is expected in a matter of weeks.

But whatever it contains, that launch won’t be able to claim World Rugby ratification.

World Rugby’s seal of approval comes with benefits; its absence will be a question mark for those pondering whether to take up an R360 offer, either as a player or host city.

Being part of World Rugby’s calendar would give R360 access to the governing body’s centrally-contracted group of elite officials, its established anti-doping infrastructure and legal and insurance framework.

It would lend legitimacy to the start-up and, perhaps most crucially, make it more likely R360’s recruits can continue their Test careers.

Each national union sets its own policy towards international selection.

New Zealand, England, Ireland and France are among those who favour or exclusively pick domestic-based players.

Any of their stars who switch to R360 would – barring a radical change in their union’s stance – be ineligible for Test selection.

However, South Africa, Australia, Scotland and Argentina’s sides are among those open to overseas stars, raising the possibility that, for them, a lucrative sideline in a ratified R360 could co-exist with a Test career.

The best business sense for R360 is to be able to assure players they can have both.

In this regard, World Rugby wants the same.

Such is the importance of the international game showing off its stars, World Rugby stipulates sanctioned club tournaments make players available for their countries at set times of the year.

However, those release windows leave little room in the calendar in which R360’s prospective all-star international roster of men’s and women’s players could all be available at that same time.

R360’s current plan is to run in two blocks: from April to June and August to September. These would clash with the Women’s Six Nations and the usual Rugby Championship window in which South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina meet.

Without a guarantee to release players for those Tests and others, ratification won’t be forthcoming.

R360 would prefer to earn World Rugby’s approval, but it has a parallel plan.

An all-out rebel approach – in which R360 operates as an independent competition outside World Rugby’s governance structure – is an option.

It would have full control over players and be able to pick and choose their dates, rather than working around the existing calendar.

R360 claims it is fully funded. With the franchise sale process closing at the end of September, it says it already has investors in place for each of its 12 teams: eight men’s and four women’s.

R360’s backers are interested in the missing millions – in both eyeballs and cash – between the international game and its club cousin.

The 2023 Rugby World Cup in France was the most viewed rugby event of all time and generated a record £475m in surplus revenue.

However, there is a steep drop-off in numbers below the international level, with the vast majority of clubs running at a loss and struggling to grow television revenues in a competitive market.

A report commissioned by R360 called Reinventing Rugby, estimated that while 200 million people watch the men’s Rugby World Cup, only 24 million are fully-engaged fans of the club game.

The launch of the Club World Cup in 2028 was announced earlier this year as a way to stimulate growth, while England’s top-flight Prem plans to restructure itself as a franchise league without on-pitch relegation to bring in new investors.

World Rugby’s own global calendar – years in the making – will begin in 2026, with the Nations Championship format building towards a year-end grand final.

But R360 believes its bolder innovation, featuring cosmopolitan squads of the biggest names playing in cities around the world will be good for the game and for those who back it financially.

Unlike LIV Golf, which it has been frequently compared to, R360 does not have the brute force of Saudi Arabian state money behind it.

Never mind billion-dollar claims, this is the million-dollar question.

Andrew Georgiou, president of broadcasting big-hitter Discovery’s European sports division, is sceptical. At best.

“I’ve been involved in sport for 25 years. I can’t tell you how many of these PowerPoint presentations have come across my desk with people who were absolutely certain that what they had on that page was going to be the new ‘thing’,” he said in June.

“If these folks believe that they are going to grow the revenue by putting this thing on, I think they’re delusional. I really do.”

He might not be the first broadcaster to cause R360 problems, either.

R360 officials will have to convince media bosses that a new series spread over many time zones, with fluctuating start times, will not get lost in the schedules.

Georgiou has an interest in the situation. The TNT Sports channel he controls broadcasts England’s Prem Rugby, one of the leagues that would be damaged by R360’s success.

But he can point to precedent.

The World 12s website is still online.

It intended a similar drastic shake-up to rugby, poaching top talent for a global short-form tournament.

It attracted heavyweight names, with former New Zealand captain Kieran Read and Springbok legend Schalk Burger enlisted as ambassadors, and promised hundreds of thousands of pounds and a lighter fixture schedule for its stars.

And it was supposed to begin in August 2022.

Despite defiant words from the World 12s in the aftermath, World Rugby’s October 2021 decision not to ratify the event torpedoed its plans.

Back in 1995, the professionalism of the men’s game was sped along by Australian mogul Kerry Packer’s World Rugby Corporation, which – like R360 – got players to commit, in theory, to a breakaway league.

That venture crumbled as Springbok stars backed out, saying their agreements with the WRC were unenforceable letters of intent, rather than contracts.

“We are moving ahead with full steam and we expect to be in a position to make important announcements favourable to WRC in the immediate future,” said Ross Turnbull, the man behind the start-up, reacting to the news.

It, like the World 12s, sunk without trace.

R360, with considerable money and momentum, may be different.

September international breaks are getting longer from 2026, in a move that will bring the disappearance of the October international break.

The change is being made for a number of reasons.

These include the 2026 World Cup final having the latest date for a summer World Cup since 1966, with the match due to be played on 19 July.

Player welfare also featured in the discussions that took place with stakeholders and all Fifa’s confederations prior to approval.

Travel considerations are a factor in the change. The reduction in breaks will reduce the number of journeys where players from one continent have to travel to another for their international fixtures – such as African or South American players who play their domestic football in Europe and have to travel cross-continent to fulfil international fixtures.

There are currently five international breaks each year, lasting two weeks each – in March, June, September, October and November.

Each break means there is no league football in the top divisions for two weeks as countries play two matches each.

There are some exceptions, such as when there is a major tournament like the World Cup, Africa Cup of Nations or European Championship.

Starting next year, there will instead be an increased September break, with no October break and a regular November break.

There will be a three-week gap for domestic matches in September and countries will play four international matches instead of two.

The move to switch to an extended September break was approved by the Fifa Council in March 2023. The council is made up of representatives from all six Fifa confederations and is discussed with football stakeholders prior to making and approving changes.

The extended September break and abolished October break mean the final round of Premier League fixtures will take place on the weekend of 19-20 September 2026 and resume on 10-11 October 2026.

The longer break will allow countries to play four matches in the window instead of two before players return to their clubs.

For European nations, this will be the first four group matches of the 2026-27 Nations League campaign.

No, the number of matches countries play remains the same.

At present, nations play six matches across the September, October and November windows.

This will stay at six in 2026, but with four taking place in the first extended break and two in November, as opposed to three breaks of two matches.

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