JURGEN KLOPP has claimed Holland would be risking Virgil van Dijk’s career by rushing him back for the Euros.
The Dutch defender was ruled out for the season after a horror challenge from Everton’s Jordan Pickford ruptured his cruciate knee ligament last October.
Van Dijk has spent the last couple of months undergoing rehab in Dubai and excited fans with a video of himself running on the training ground.
But the 29-year-old is still unlikely to play for Liverpool before the end of the season despite the Reds facing a fight to make top four in his absence.
Van Dijk is Holland’s captain yet Klopp believes selecting him for this summer’s Euros, which begins on June 11, would be jeopardising his career.
We speak about a player and his career, so nobody should force it and nobody will. Not Holland, not us and not Virgil as well. It’s just about getting as fit as possible
Jurgen Klopp
The Liverpool manager said: “I don’t want to hold Virgil back but you can’t force it as well.
“You are all long enough in the business to know that if you want to play you have to train before – and proper football training.
“It takes weeks. Not a week before. You cannot be 10 or 11 months out, train for one week and then play football. That is not possible, it should not be possible.
“No one is holding Virgil back – I can promise all the people in Holland that we cannot force it, and we will not.
“We speak about a player and his career, so nobody should force it and nobody will.
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“Not Holland, not us and not Virgil as well. It’s just about getting as fit as possible.
“Nobody knows at the moment when that will be exactly, but you can imagine for sure it will be very, very tight with the Euros because he is not in team training yet and will not be in the next few weeks.
“So I don’t know. But in the end it’s a decision of Virgil and he will get massively influenced by the feeling in his knee.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
