Thomas Muller has urged the football's governing bodies to stop inflating the match calendar and allow top players to catch a mental break from football.
Speaking at a news conference in Evian, Muller warned against exploiting the game's best players and asked the governing bodies and deciders to allow them a rest.
"You just come up for air, and you get pushed under the water immediately," the Germany forward said. "It's alarming that the discussion is to play more games rather than fewer."
Muller added that the problem is not playing a match every four days but rather being unable to get away from the game.
"We'll get three weeks of holiday after the tournament, but we'll already have to play catch-up at the club, and two weeks later the season begins," Muller said. "It's about getting a mental rest. It's rather important to have nothing to do with it for a couple of weeks. Right now you just come up for air, and you get pushed back under the water immediately."
Muller noted that as an international top player in a top league there is no rest, and admitted that as a Bundesliga player he is even better off than his colleagues in the Premier League.
"When you look at England, they don't even have a winter break. That is brutal," Muller said.
Last week, Tottenham and Belgium defender Toby Alderweireld suggested that England's failure at the Euro 2016 might also be down to a lack of rest for the players in Premier League.
"We are working every day for a year. When the other leagues take a winter break, we just gear up. That creeps into your clothes and translates into the elimination of England," Alderweireld said.
Bayern Munich and Germany forward Muller, 26, has made a total of 61 competitive appearances for club and country since August 2015. Currently with the German team, he will reunite with his club by the end of the month as they are set to tour the United States.
For the first time, 24 teams take part in the ongoing European Championships, and UEFA has introduced the round-of-16 as the seventh match for the two finalists of the tournament.
At the end of the 2016-2017 season, Germany will take part in the Confederations Cup starting in Russia on June 17, 2017. Following the 2018 World Cup, UEFA will also introduce the UEFA Nations Cup, which will all but end the current system of friendlies played next to the qualifiers for the tournaments.
There have also been calls from new FIFA president Gianni Infantino to expand the World Cup from currently 32 teams to 40 teams in the near future.
UEFA are also currently working on changes to the Champions League, with a new format set to be discussed over the next few months.