Player burnout won't go away NEXT year's All Stars match is shaping as anything but after Australia captain Cameron Smith warned some of the elite players will sit it out because of this year's heavy representative schedule. Smith is among a number of players who will be asked to play about 40 games this season. That includes pre-season trials, the NRL's regular season plus finals, a mid-season Test match, the State of Origin series and the end-of-season World Cup tournament. The Melbourne hooker's season started on February 9 when he played in the All Stars match at Suncorp Stadium and is expected to finish in England with a World Cup final at Old Trafford on November 30. Smith said players involved in the World Cup would be given time off by their clubs at the end of it and wouldn't physically be ready to play in the All Stars game, which is played in early February. "This World Cup final is on the November 30 so the blokes who are involved in that are not going to be able to play the All Stars game," Smith told The Weekend Australian. The All Stars game is like a round-one NRL match because you've got all the elite players playing in that game. You couldn't play a game physically with one week's preparation. There's so much risk of injury. You've just done nothing for six or seven weeks so your body's got to get prepared to tackle and to run and sprint. I think the clubs will say you can't be picked. There's no way you can be picked. The All Stars match will celebrate its fifth year in 2014 and is regarded as the start to the NRL season. The game is played between an indigenous team and some of the best non-indigenous players, including the Australian and New Zealand captains. Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens is planning to take 24 players to the World Cup with pool games scheduled against England, Fiji and Ireland followed by the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. The Kiwis are expected to take a similar-sized squad. Players who could be affected for the All Stars match include Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk, Jarryd Hayne, Akuila Uate, Josh and Brett Morris, James Tamou, Robbie Farah, Greg Inglis, Justin Hodges, Johnathan Thurston, Greg Bird and Simon Mannering. Smith said clouding the issue were plans to stage a $2.2 million "Super Nines" tournament to kick off the season. "At the end of the day it's the NRL making the decisions about how they want to look after the players," Smith said. The AFL has 18 teams and they play four less rounds than we do. They've got two more teams and play four less rounds. They're not allowed to play five-day turnarounds and we've had two five-day turnarounds this year, already in six weeks. I speak to AFL players and they say, 'I can't believe what you blokes do'. I think we can do things a little bit better with our scheduling and player welfare. We talk about banning shoulder charges and looking after player welfare, well how about players' welfare having to back up five days after a match and playing all these games? Smith said he was looking forward to the World Cup at the end of the year although he didn't see it as a simple revenge mission. The Kangaroos were favoured to win the last World Cup in 2008 but were upset 34-20 by New Zealand in the final. He added that he was hoping this would not be his last tournament. He will be 34 for the 2017 World Cup.