Andoni Iraola is facing a nervous week or so after sending 15 of his first-team players off to play during the international break.

As he pointed out after Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday, three key players reported back injured following the last set of national team fixtures in September and October, and the Reds cannot afford for the same thing to happen again.

One of those to return injured last month was Dominik Szoboszlai, who made only four appearances for Liverpool since playing almost 350 minutes across four matches in 11 days for Hungary.

Playing his captain so relentlessly was a bad decision from Marco Rossi, and it inevitably led to injury for Szoboszlai. Just before the break, Szoboszlai was injured again, this time while playing for Liverpool in their win against Palace. Although Iraola admitted that he would prefer the midfielder not to report for duty, Szoboszlai has joined up with Hungary, who face Giorgi Mamardashvili’s Georgia on Sunday.

Liverpool and Iraola will be desperately hoping that the No. 8 does not feature in Tbilisi, but after he was pictured training with heavy strapping on his knee on Friday, there is clearly a chance that Rossi and Hungary are going to push Szoboszlai again.

Liverpool should be furious with Hungary

Before the break, Iraola claimed that the decision on whether he joins the national team or not will ultimately be down to Szoboszlai – as long as he is not injured – and, as a result, perhaps their anger here should be directed towards him rather than Rossi or the Hungarian federation.

Having said that, Rossi in particular has been scathing of Liverpool in the past, making jibes at Arne Slot’s decision to play Szoboszlai at right-back especially.

There seems to be little understanding from their side that Szoboszlai cannot play every single match, and there seems to be a real lack of concern over what that could lead to.

The 26-year-old has been an incredibly robust footballer up to this point of his career, but that may not go on indefinitely. If he is being wheeled out for Nations League matches when he could quite easily be rested, there will come a point where he begins to pick up little problems.

With that in mind, this November could be a make-or-break moment for Szoboszlai. If Hungary play him again, despite him clearly being not fully fit, it could exacerbate a problem and lead to more down the line for the player.

If they keep him out of the team to face Georgia and instead assess him ahead of their game against Northern Ireland on Tuesday, that would hopefully allow Szoboszlai the time to get properly healed. However, playing him at all would obviously be the smarter decision.

Szoboszlai should never have gone on duty

When a player is as important to his nation as Szoboszlai is for Hungary, it can easily lead to problems between club and country.

It is a genuine issue that the former RB Leipzig man is so determined to play for them at every opportunity, because he clearly feels a desperate need not to let them down. While that is understandable as captain, Szoboszlai needs to think about what is best for Liverpool.

Without trying to be crass, the Reds are ultimately the ones who pay his wages, and if he makes his injury worse while playing or even training, he will not be able to play for anybody regardless.

In these kinds of scenarios, Liverpool really should be stepping in and blocking their player from going anywhere at all. That can lead to frosty relations between the parties involved, but if nations are not going to be responsible with their players, then the Reds just have to accept that.

There will likely be conversations going on behind the scenes about what Liverpool expect to happen with Szoboszlai, but at the end of the day it will be Rossi who decides. So far, the Italian has shown little regard for helping the Reds out.

Things could all work out fine for everyone and Szoboszlai plays for Hungary before coming back for Liverpool. But there is a chance here that it blows the other way.

The Reds have no control over that, but if the worst happens and Szoboszlai comes back injured again, some serious, serious questions are going to have to be answered and this already tense relationship between club and country will get even more frosty.