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Netherlands midfielder Frenkie de Jong has been ruled out of the European Championship after failing to recover from an ankle injury, dealing a blow to the team’s chances.
The Dutch football federation announced the Barcelona star would not be available for Euro 2024 in Germany after Ronald Koeman’s team beat Iceland 4-0 in their final warmup. De Jong watched from the bench on Monday in Rotterdam.
“He won’t be fit enough to play at this level for the next three weeks,” Koeman said. “There’s no point keeping him with us.”
De Jong’s hopes of playing were dashed when tests “showed that the ankle is not yet sufficiently resilient,” Netherlands officials said in a statement. Koeman will decide later whether to call up a replacement. AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders played in midfield in De Jong’s absence on Monday.
Another midfielder, Teun Koopmeiners, was injured while warming up for the Iceland match and was also in doubt for the tournament. Koeman said they were waiting for test results expected on Tuesday, but he added, “I have a bad feeling.”
The Netherlands, the 1988 European champion, plays Poland in their first Group D match on Sunday in Hamburg before taking on World Cup runner-ups France and completing the group stage against Austria.
Poland strikers Robert Lewandowski and Karol Swiderski were in doubt for Euro 2024 after they were injured as Poland beat Turkey 2-1 in a warmup on Monday.
A succession of players have already had to pull out of the tournament injured since the squads were announced including Giorgio Scalvini of Italy, Scotland’s Lyndon Dykes and Netherlands’ Frenkie de Jong.
Source: independent.co.uk
