National coach Ronald Koeman has decided not to call up a replacement for Teun Koopmeiners, reports Martijn Krabbendam from Football International. The 26-year-old Atalanta midfielder injured his groin in the warm-up of the friendly match against Iceland (4-0 win), meaning that he, like Frenkie de Jong, has to cancel the European Championship.

It was already thought that Koeman would not call for a replacement, as the KNVB did not mention a new name in the European Championship selection in a press release. The association only wrote that Ian Maatsen had been brought into the selection as a replacement for De Jong, who dropped out due to an injury.

The press release also mentioned the disappearance of Koopmeiners. “Koopmeiners has to miss EURO 2024 after he injured himself during the warm-up of the match against Iceland yesterday. Koeman's final selection now consists of 25 players.”

The national coach now still has six midfielders at his disposal: Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool), Tijjani Reijnders (AC Milan), Jerdy Schouten (PSV), Xavi Simons (RB Leipzig), Joey Veerman (PSV) and Georginio Wijnaldum (Al-Ettifaq) .

In the run-up to the European Championship, the Dutch selection manager saw one midfielder after another fall injured. Feyenoord players Mats Wieffer and Quinten Timber ultimately proved not to be fit enough, while Marten de Roon suffered a thigh injury at Atalanta.

The recent withdrawal of De Jong and Koopmeiners are two other major setbacks for Koeman. The five together account for no fewer than 127 international matches.

The Dutch team will start the European Championship in Germany next Sunday with a group match against Poland. Afterwards, matches in the group with France (Friday, June 21) and Austria (Tuesday, June 25) are scheduled.

This article is an update of an earlier news item. The comments below the message may therefore be less current.

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