Virgil van Dijk has officially confirmed that he will not be part of the Netherlands squad for the European Championships next month.

The Oranje captain has been a major doubt for the championships since suffering an injury playing for Liverpool against Everton back in October.

However, Frank de Boer has always left the door open for Van Dijk to recover in time to make the championships. Van Dijk has now officially stated he will not recover in time, and will focus on being back fit for next season.

He said, “I have reached a stage where I had to choose: should I participate in the European Championship or not? With everything that is going on, I feel that it is physically the right decision not to go to the European Championship. I am now entering the final phase of rehabilitation in the summer. The full focus is on the new season.” 

Van Dijk admitted he was very disappointed, “I miss the opportunity to play a European Championship as captain. But it turned out like this. I have to accept this, we all have to accept it. I think this is the right decision when you look at the whole picture. It’s tough, but I’m at peace with it.”

The centre-back thinks he would have been able to play in the latter stages of the tournament, “There is a chance that I could play the last matches of the tournament. I have decided not to take that risk. This is the right decision. “

Frank de Boer names his provisional Netherlands squad on Friday.




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