During the upcoming international break, Daniel Farke’s team will regroup at Leeds United before taking on Breath. The ultimate league standings will be determined by eight games spread over five weeks, thus each team’s ability to recoup during this final stretch might make or break them.

Leeds has demonstrated how tenacious the campaign’s core has proven to be for everyone involved by packing 26 games into the 16 weeks since the previous international break. Before the last push, Farke will be eager for his players to mentally and physically recharge.

“It’s a big, big challenge on the Championship level because it’s not just physical loads, but especially the mental load because a game is always different to training,” he said. “You can have more or less the same load when you just have one game per week by training really hard and normally we do this, but the mental load, the mental pressure, this is always something really special, especially for our young players because there are so many expectations.

“The whole football world, at least our country, watches the games. We are, more or less, always live on telly, many pundits speak about each and every player, rate each and every player.

“The families, the agents are watching and following the game. So it’s always lots of pressure, especially for the young lads and this is what we have to take into account and we have to make sure we create an environment where it’s just about football.

“We’re just about the contents and give them also some backing, also some trust, also honest values, honest ratings and judgement, this is quite important. The big break after this game on Friday will be already beneficial, but then especially the next international break will be quite important for the players with so much load.”

The big break Farke mentions is the mammoth nine days between Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall. Ending this phase of the campaign at Elland Road, against a bitter rival like Millwall, could be the perfect send-off.

International duty will, inevitably, stop several of his players from getting the recovery he would otherwise want them to have. Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon, Archie Gray, Glen Kamara, Daniel James, Wilfried Gnonto, Ilia Gruev, Liam Cooper, Connor Roberts, Charlie Cresswell and Mateo Joseph all seem likely to be called up, but there could be other surprises too.

“We also need to allow them to clear their heads a bit, especially in the first week [of the international break],” said Farke. “Sadly, that’s not possible for all of my players because there are also some important games coming up, sometimes even against each other.

“Especially for the players who are there on international duty, the load is incredible, but yes, what should we do? We have to get to it. We can’t influence the schedule anymore.

“We have to find some good solutions and also here at Thorp Arch, during the week, we use the information we give them, also the load, the physical, but also the mental load, we give them.

“We have to prepare them for the next opponent, but also have to make sure we don’t overload them and don’t put even more expectations on their shoulder. So it’s important they train sometimes with a smile and they leave with a smile, so we need to find a good balance between being concentrated, but also not being over the line.”