VAN DE BLEAK
The hits just keep on coming for United’s out-of-favour Dutchman as injury rules him out of the Euros
A HORRID year has gone from bad to worse for Donny van de Beek, yesterday ruled out of Holland’s squad for the Euros.
The Dutchman was hoping he could put some shine on an awful debut season at Old Trafford by starring for his country at this summer’s football jamboree.
But it was confirmed yesterday that the Manchester United flop is out with a groin injury.
Old Trafford team-mate Marcus Rashford was quick to offer him support after his latest bout of bad luck.
Rashford posted on social media: “Sorry mate. Take some time for yourself and keep your head high.”
It was debatable how much Van de Beek would have featured for Holland this summer given his lack of first-team football this season. Indeed, the Dutch announced yesterday that they will not be calling up a replacement.
The 24-year-old midfielder
moved to United last summer in a £35million move from Ajax but he managed just 511 minutes of Premier League football in his first season in England.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer often turned to Scott Mctominay, Fred and Nemanja Matic ahead of Van de Beek in the engine room. In 36 appearances he scored just one goal and supplied only one assist.
Van de Beek sat out Holland’s win over Georgia on Sunday having previously been an unused substitute against Scotland.
He will now take time off to recover before starting pre-season training with United next month.
That will at least give him a chance to get a head start on his midfield rivals at United who could
be involved in the latter stages of Euro 2020.
The Dutch, 14-1 chances with bookies to win the European Championship for the first time since 1988, have other injury problems to worry about.
Juventus defender Matthijs de Ligt hobbled out of Saturday’s training session with a groin injury and has been training away from his international team-mates.
With Virgil van Dijk absent, losing another star centre-half would be a damaging blow.
Frank de Boer’s side will begin their Group C campaign against Ukraine in Amsterdam on Sunday before concluding their group with matches against Austria and North Macedonia.