Goalkeeper Justin Bijlow could be stuck at Feyenoord indefinitely after Southampton cancelled a move thanks to his injury record.
That’s according to surgeon and former Feyenoord club doctor Casper van Eijck, via Soccer News, who believes Southampton’s late cancellation may end up costing the goalkeeper further down the line.
Bijlow looked set for a move to Southampton at some point this week after they agreed a deal with Feyenoord for him at the end of last week.
He said an emotional goodbye to the Dutch club on Sunday before heading to England for a medical and to complete the move.
That is where problems arose, though, as Southampton took concern with a previous injury picked up in his medical. That led to a ‘disagreement’ according to the goalkeeper, who later confirmed he wouldn’t be making the move after all.
it was later reported in the Netherlands that Southampton were concerned over the two wrist fractures that Bijlow has suffered since 2022, which have seen him spend 121 days out injured and miss 27 games for club and country.
Van Eijck has seen such injuries before and can understand their concern and thinks other clubs may feel the same way now Southampton have pulled out of a deal because of them.
“I was once asked by Vitesse to perform a medical test on a player,” Soccer News report him saying to NRC.
“He had previously broken his ankle. We took a picture, it looked terrible, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t play football with it.
“It’s very annoying for Justin now. The big question is whether he will ever get away from Feyenoord with this history. I can well imagine that Southampton says: we think that is too high a risk.
“Suppose you are a club doctor there, and he is out again after two or three weeks with the same injury, then everyone looks at the club doctor. Especially because such large amounts are involved these days.”
