Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling says players are being "butchered" and has backed calls for referees to clamp down on dangerous tackles.
City boss Pep Guardiola urged officials to protect players after a litany of bad challenges on his team in recent months including another two poor challenges on Kevin De Bruyne and Brahim Diaz in the 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion on Wednesday.
And England international Sterling has warned that top players will miss the World Cup in the summer because of suffering injuries from bad challenges.
"I find it a bit unfair at times. I feel that we haven't been protected enough in certain situations," he said ahead of Saturday's clash with Burnley.
"I think some of the challenges have been awful. It's not what I expect to see in a top-flight football match -- especially when teams are losing and just go out to kick players. I don't think that's right.
"I do think we need to cut down on that because we've got a World Cup at the end of the year and majority of the players in the top flight and in our team will be playing in it and it would be sad to see someone miss the tournament due to a silly tackle and someone get away with it.
"These tackles can happen but it can't be every game we're getting two players coming in with injuries.
"There are going to be challenges that are badly-timed and probably not all of them are intentional but at the same time if it's a dangerous tackle, it's a dangerous tackle and I think the referees and officials need to cut these tackles out because as you can see some of the players are getting butchered, butchered out there and it's sad to see. But I just feel we need to try and cut this out of the game."
David Silva faces a late fitness test to see if he is available for the trip to Turf Moor after picking up a side strain but De Bruyne and Brahim have been passed fit for the game.
Sterling on the other hand only has to recover from the embarrassment of receiving a kiss on the head from boss Guardiola midway through the midweek victory over West Brom.
After shooting narrowly off-target, he was rewarded with the surprising response by his manager and admitted he got a bit of stick for the incident from his teammates.
"It was a bit strange," he admitted. "I didn't think he was going to kiss me, I thought he was going to give me some advice so when he kissed me I was thinking a bit: 'oh okay.'
"I knew I was going to get a bit of banter from the boys after as well. But it was alright."