Are players suffering from too many games?

South Africa's World Cup chief has claimed FIFA need to look at the issue of player fatigue from too many games.

Whilst the five-week long event itself has generally been regarded as a success, there has been widespread disappointment at the failure of football's biggest names to make any kind of impact.

Lionel Messi, Kaka and Wayne Rooney did not manage a goal between them, Cristiano Ronaldo scored just once - in the drubbing of North Korea - and Fernando Torres heads into the final with his score sheet blank as well.

Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the South Africa 2010 organising committee, feels the statistics are too significant to be treated as a coincidence.

And he believes the underlying issue of player burn-out is one FIFA have to take seriously.

"Player freshness is always an issue at the World Cup," he said.

"Just how many matches can the body of a football player take? Is is 70? Less?

"It seems at the end of a season the body cannot take the pressure and extra energy required for the World Cup.

"The players we expected to score many goals did not score a single one."

Fabio Capello raised the issue of tiredness as he was fumbling around for a reason why England performed so badly

Ageing squads for Italy and France cannot have helped their abysmal campaigns either.

And for the African contenders, the problem was even more acute.

Arguably Africa's biggest two stars, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba, either did not take part at all in Essien's case or were hampered by an injury picked up before the tournament began.

In itself, Drogba's broken arm can hardly be put down to the rigours of the season.

However, given what Ivory Coast's talisman had to put his body through last year, it is hardly surprising he broke down, or that five of Africa's six representatives bowed out at the group stage.

"Those players had to play at the African Nations Cup in January, then go back to their clubs to play in the league and the Champions League, then come back to the World Cup," observed Jordaan.

"Is it reasonable to expect Michael Essien and Didier Drogba to come and perform in the World Cup? I think not. I think it is too much."

FIFA did try to incorporate rest periods in the calendar and ordered no international games to be played prior to the weekend of May 22.

But it does not seem to have worked.

Four days after the FA Cup final, Chelsea's double-winners were boarding a plane for Austria and the first altitude training camp England had actually started on the previous Monday.

"A complete rest period has some effect but it is something that really needs another look for 2014," said Jordaan.

"We have to make sure these players do have a rest before they come to a very demanding World Cup in Brazil."

As part of the assessment team for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Jordaan declined to offer an opinion on what characteristics could be learned from the one that is about to end.

"The referee can't talk about what you must do to win the match," he claimed.

However, he did state that the present bidding process is far from over.

England will find out in December whether they will host the World Cup in 2018.

With the tournament virtually certain to be held in Europe, Spain are an obvious rival, although there is a growing feeling Russia may end up with the prize.

Having gone through a similar process when South Africa were beaten to the 2006 World Cup by Germany, Jordaan feels it is too early to start making assumptions.

"The competition for 2018 and 2022 is going to be very intense," he said.

"For the 2006 event we started off with Germany, England, Brazil, and Morocco.

"At that point people said it would be between Germany and England. No-one expected it to be 12-11 with one abstention.

"Who gets to host a World Cup is very difficult to predict. You must work hard and not take your eye off the ball."