Virgil van Dijk is happy with his return to the Premier League. The Liverpool defender has made a full recovery after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee and started on Saturday against Norwich City (0-3 win). In a candid interview with Sky Sports Van Dijk tells after the game about the difficult period in the beginning of his recovery.
“The beginning was the hardest,” says Van Dijk, who was injured in October 2020 and was sidelined for a total of 301 days in competition. “Mentally it’s hard. One day you’re in great shape, the next day you can’t walk, you’re stuffed with medicine, you’re in pain, you can’t sleep… Everyone has an opinion and you read it, because you have nothing else to do.” Van Dijk kept an eye on the performance of his teammates and was not happy with the injuries that fellow defenders such as Joe Gomez and Joel Matip struggled with last season. “It was annoying to see that we had more injury problems in important positions last year.”
“We couldn’t play the way we wanted to play: with high pressure, full of energy. It’s not easy to play with midfielders in the center of the defense,” says Van Dijk, referring to the fact that Fabinho replaced him in the heart. of the defense. “The boys did a fantastic job in the end by finishing third. Hopefully we can build on that this season and stay fit. You should never take that for granted. If we stay fit, we can compete at the top. We have to enjoy the season and I certainly will, after being absent for so long.”
Van Dijk goes on to say that it feels ‘great’ to make his comeback in the Premier League. “It was a tough game for several reasons. Winning 0-3 sounds comfortable, but we made it difficult for ourselves in the final phase and came under a bit of pressure. Maybe it’s because of fatigue, we have to look at that. “But you can’t be negative about the evening. I’m happy to be back on the pitch and help the boys. I need match rhythm and the coach knows that. Today was a good start. Hopefully I’ll be ready next week too to play.”