Jürgen Klopp will not ban Virgil van Dijk from going to the European Championship next summer, the Liverpool manager promised at the press conference on Monday. At the same time, Klopp said he would make sure that Van Dijk did not rush his race against time to recover in time for the tournament. “I’m not going to stop him, but you can’t force it,” Klopp said to the journalists present.
Klopp emphasized that it will be difficult for Van Dijk, who tore off his anterior cruciate ligament on October 17. “You have all been in football long enough to know that you have to train intensively for weeks before a tournament,” Klopp told reporters. “A week of training is not enough. You cannot train for a week after ten or eleven months of absence and then play again. That is simply impossible.”
“Nobody is going to stop him, I can promise that to anyone in the Netherlands or wherever,” the German continued. “But we cannot force it and we are not going to do that. We are talking about a player and his career. Nobody should force that and nobody will – not the Netherlands, not us, and neither Virgil. He tries. just get fit as soon as possible. “
Van Dijk has been back on the Liverpool training field for a long time, but is not training with the group yet. “At the moment no one knows when Virgil will be fit again, but you can imagine it will be absolutely very, very tight,” said Klopp. “He’s not taking part in team training yet and he won’t be in the next few weeks. So I don’t know. Ultimately, it’s Virgil’s decision that will also depend a lot on how his knee feels.”
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