Van Dijk playing ‘with 2 broken ribs for weeks’, defender is ‘constantly injecting at Liverpool’

Jurgen Klopp has made his opinion clear on the UEFA Nations League.

The Liverpool manager doesn’t like the competitive nature of the competition, feeling players will push themselves more than they would have done for friendlies, therefore making injuries more likely.

Klopp’s words may have been directed firmly towards Van Dijk’s situation, because Ronald Koeman has now explained that Liverpool would have preferred the defender had stayed with them during the current international break, but he insisted on playing against Germany.

Not only that, the former Everton manager has stated Van Dijk has been playing with broken ribs for weeks and has only got through matches for his club side with the help of painkilling injections.

“Virgil has been playing with two broken ribs for weeks and has been constantly injecting to play at Liverpool in recent weeks. He insisted on being present against Germany. That’s great, because you want internationals who want to be here at the expense of everything. The club would have preferred him there. But he said that he wanted to play against Germany. If you get something, you also have to give something back.”

Whilst Koeman is clearly happy with his player for pushing to be allowed to play for Oranje, and then helping them to a great victory over Germany, the whole thing probably hasn’t gone down well at Anfield.