Alan Curbishley has admitted player fatigue was behind Charlton's decision to snub the Intertoto Cup.
While a host of other clubs, have applied to enter the summer competition - which provides three clubs with Uefa Cup spots - Charlton have repeated their stance of last season. Curbishley has had to deal with a glut of injuries since July and believes his squad, a handful of whom will feature in the World Cup, need recuperation time. Even if the south-east London club match or improve on last season's ninth-placed Premiership finish - they will not chase European endeavour.
"It's quite simple," explained the Charlton manager. "I don't want to bring the players back that early and prepare them for a game in the middle of July when we have had a tremendously hard Premiership season and players playing in World Cup games. "Last summer if we ended up getting involved in it we couldn't have fielded a side because of the injuries we had. "I just want to have a clean break this summer and hopefully they will come back nice and fresh. "I don't want to bring them back three or four weeks after we've finished. "We had a lot of injuries this season and the players need the break."