Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 5:34 PM• Tom Rofekamp • Last update: 17:42

Brian Brobbey is still troubled by the charge of Tijjani Reijnders last Sunday. In the final phase of the duel with Ajax (2-1 win), the AZ midfielder came in hard on the Ajax striker, who then came to get a furious story from his attacker. Brobbey was forced to train separately at the Dutch Juniors on Tuesday due to Reijnders’ action. “I just don’t think you can do something like that,” he says in an interview with The Telegraph.

With a few minutes left on the clock, Reijnders hit Brobbey hard from behind on Sunday, who was pushed to the ground. Analysts at Studio Football and This was the Weekend agreed: ‘a dark red card’. “It still bothers me a lot,” says Brobbey the Tuesday after in Zeist. “My right ankle still hurts a lot. I also came here to see if it’s okay.”

According to Brobbey, nobody has ever come in like this in his entire career. “They’ve never kicked me like that before. No, never. Normally they pull on my shirt or something. And he didn’t get a red, no. But yes… Incoming with your leg is very dangerous. I think you can’t do something like that. Maybe it happened by accident,” he nuances Reijnders’ action.

Due to Sunday’s incident, it is by no means certain whether Brobbey can play against Belgium’s peers on Friday. If that comes too early, the friendly against Young Romania is also still on the program on September 27. National coach Erwin van de Looi thinks it is in any case commendable that Brobbey showed up. “The fact that he is here, that he wants to play, and that he is going to do everything he can to make it to the match, I think is nice of him. That is also right, by the way”, Van de Looi wants to add. “When he was in a much lesser phase in Leipzig, we helped him from the Dutch Juniors to build up competition rhythm.”