& GO FOR VAN DIJK

come to us.” Groningen soon discovered they had signed a player who was physically shot.

Van Dijk had been playing for both Willem II’s Under-19s and Under-23s teams each weekend.

He was so exhausted that they spent the first six months nursing him back to peak fitness.

Dick Lukkien, boss of Groningen’s reserve team, said: “In a way, Virgil had been abused. We had to stop him from carrying on training and playing like a beast.

“It was only when he saw that I had faith in him as a player that he allowed me to be his friend and trusted coach.”

Van Dijk progressed into Groningen’s first team and made a name for himself when he scored twice to guarantee qualification to the Europa League.

He turned down a move to Brighton in 2012 before Celtic made their move a year later. The defender felt he would be better served waiting for one of Holland’s big clubs to finally recognise him rather than moving to Glasgow.

So he asked Groningen sporting director Hans Nijland to call Ajax technical director Marc Overmars to state his case.

“Marc, this is your last chance with Van Dijk,” said Nijland. “It is now or never.”

Ex-Arsenal winger Overmars has made the Amsterdam club a profit in excess of £220m in the transfer market.

But he told Nijland that he would not be sanctioning a bid as he had already lined a move up for Utrecht’s Mike van der Hoorn, who now plays in the Championship for Swansea.

So Celtic got their man and almost six years on Van Dijk sits at the top of the Premier League and will lead his country into Nations League combat against England this summer. KOP star Virgil van Dijk has already won the biggest fight of his life.

The defender has been crucial to Jurgen Klopp’s side as they have set the pace at the top of the Premier League and surged through to the Champions League Quarter-Finals.

But he had to call on every ounce of his strength a decade ago when he underwent an emergency operation after suffering a burst appendix.

Van Dijk’s mother, Ruby, was told by doctors it was only her son’s remarkable levels of fitness that enabled him to pull through after the potentially fatal condition also led to him suffering peritonitis and uraemia.

Van Dijk said: “I looked death in the eye and it was a terrible experience.

“For the first time in my life football meant nothing to me. It was not important at all. This was all about trying to stay alive. I remember lying in bed. All I could see were tubes.

“My body was broken. I was not capable of anything. The worst things went through my mind.”

Van Dijk was 17 and at the end of his first season with Groningen when he started complaining of stomach pains during a training session.

He was sent home from hospital with painkillers before his mum made a three-hour drive to see her son and immediately called for an ambulance.

Van Dijk underwent an emergency operation before spending the next few days in intensive care.

When he retured to Groningen for pre-season training he had lost more than a stone in weight.

SIMON MULLOCK