Brighton and Hove Albion star Bart Verbruggen is training on his own away from the Netherlands squad thanks to a hip injury.
Mogazmasr report on the Netherlands camp today and their final preparations before they kick off their World Cup campaign on Sunday.
Brighton man trains alone
And the big concern at the moment, aside from ‘cohesion and great efficiency’ in front of goal, is over the Brighton goalkeeper.
According to the outlet, Bart Verbruggen trained separately from the rest of the Netherlands group on Wednesday at the KC Current training complex. He’s been left working on his own due to an unspecified hip injury.
Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman has moved to play down any concerns. He remained hopeful that the goalkeeper would recover from his ‘hip contusion’ in time for Sunday’s game. His team are currently monitoring the situation day by day.
“It’s a bruise, it could have been worse,” he said when asked about the injury. If the Brighton goalkeeper does not make it, Koeman will have to turn to Robin Roefs or Mark Flekken to replace the Brighton goalkeeper.
Rush to World Cup opener
The Netherlands take on Japan in their Group F opener on Sunday. They then take on Sweden their second game on June 20th before their final group game against Tunisia six days later.
Given there does not appear to be much concern about the injury, Koeman will be hoping that the Brighton number one is available for the majority of those games.
The fact he is training on his own does suggest that there’s some concern around the current problem, though. Koeman and his medical team certainly aren’t taking any risks.
They are perhaps fortunate that Roefs. He goes to the tournament on the back of a superb debut campaign with Sunderland and will be ready and waiting in the wings. So there is no need to rush Verbruggen’s return.
