SportsLiverpool's Virgil Van Dijk Is Right To Skip Euro 2020

Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk Is Right To Skip Euro 2020

BEVERLY HILLS, May 12, (THEWILL) – When Jordan Pickford, Everton goalkeeper, brought down Liverpool’s mercurial defender Virgil van Dijk, not a few knew the extent of the damage it caused and what it was going to take to nurse the imposing defensive bulwark back to active competition.
The referee of the match, Michael Oliver, himself, admitted that he was wrong not to have sent off Pickford in the Saturday, October 17, Merseyside English Premier League derby after van Dijk required surgery for the serious knee injury he sustained in that fixture.
Having remained on the sidelines since then and missed out the rest of the season with telling consequences for his side, whose backline crumbled in his absence, the Dutchman has ruled himself out of playing at the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship with Netherlands this summer, in order to focus on regaining full fitness rather than rushing back into action.
While speaking on Liverpool’s website, the centre-back admitted that it was a tough decision to make but knew it was for all the right reasons: “Things have been going well, I’ve not had a real setback or anything, I’ve just progressed nicely.
“In this latest stage for myself, I have come to a decision that I had to make: would I be involved in the Euros, yes or no? With everything that is going on, I feel physically it is the right decision that I’ve decided not to go to the Euros and to go into my last phase of rehab during the off-season.
“The full focus will be on pre-season with the club and that’s a realistic goal, so I am looking forward to that. Obviously I am very gutted to miss the Euros and leading out my own country there, but things have been like they have and I have to accept it – we all have to accept it.
He finished with a confession of how hard it felt: “I think the decision to not go is the right decision in the grand scheme of things. It’s tough, but I’m at peace with it.”
The consequences of rushing players back into action only to see them relapse and suffer even longer spells sidelined by injuries is well documented. This season alone, Thomas Partey, the Arsenal midfielder, who arrived at the Emirates in the summer from La Liga leading side Atletico Madrid and the youngster Gabriel Martinelli, also of Arsenal, demonstrated how important it is to pace recovery from injury or suffer immediate consequences.
THEWILL hopes other footballers and their medical teams can imbibe this commendable caution and avoid the very real temptation to restore players to active duty so that their bodies can naturally recover and they can return to fill fitness before engaging in the very rigorous demands of modern day football.
The Euro 2020 is scheduled to be the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men’s football championship of Europe organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
The tournament, which will be held in 11 cities in 11 UEFA countries, was originally scheduled to take place from 12 June to 12 July 2020 but was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, and rescheduled for 11 June to 11 July 2021. It was agreed to keep the name and year as “UEFA Euro 2020” unchanged.

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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.

Jude Obafemi, THEWILLhttps://thewillnews.com
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.

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