Purpose:
The aim of the study was to determine the level of physical fitness, internal load, and recovery regarding 5 consecutive official professional soccer games and to correlate the physical fitness with the internal load and recovery variables.

Methods:
The total of 11 male professional soccer athletes performed an incremental treadmill test, which allowed to assess their physical fitness, and then participated in 5 official soccer matches held within 8.3 ± 3.7 days. After each match, the perceived recovery, perceived muscle soreness, creatine kinase concentration, and session rating of perceived exertion were registered. The effect of the 5 consecutive games was tested with the repeated measures ANOVA and the correlations were examined with the Spearman coefficient. The significance level was set at p < 0.05.

Results:
The internal load and recovery variables were similar throughout the games (p > 0.05). Significant correlations were found between internal load and physical fitness (ρ = 0.66) and between strain and recovery (ρ = –0.61).

Conclusions:
The results suggest that soccer athletes with better aerobic fitness weary more during the game and present higher strain in the season; however, they recover faster between games.