BARCELONA, July 19. (EUROPEAN PRESS) –
The Netherlands coach, Ronald Koeman, has assured this Friday that the Dutch FC Barcelona player Frenkie De Jong is “worried” about his injury and has added that “he is not yet fit to play”, so he reiterates that it was a mistake for him to play “important games” with Barça when he was not ready.
“Of course I speak to him because we know each other well, he is worried about his injury. He has a serious injury and we have to wait and see how everything goes. I wish him luck and hope he recovers quickly, but he is not yet fit to play,” he told the media before his charity tournament ‘Koeman Cup by Fundación Sportium’.
Koeman reiterated that he wanted to count on De Jong for the recent Euro 2024 in Germany and regretted that this could not be the case. “We expected before the Euro that he might not make it to the first match, to play, but we had hopes that he would play in the tournament and in the end it has not been like that,” he said.
He attributes this to poor management by his former club, FC Barcelona. At the time, during the EURO, the ‘Oranje’ coach said: “His club took a risk before and now we have to pay the price.”
He continues to repeat those words. “I know much more than you. He played important games when he wasn’t fit to play. Maybe he was fit to play (somewhat), but he wasn’t in the rhythm of matches or training to play the games against PSG,” he lamented.
“On the other hand, I understand it, because it was a very important moment for Barça, but in the end, if Frenkie himself has to return now, knowing that it is something more complicated, I would decide not to play because he was not fit to play those important games. For Frenkie’s health, it was not good to play,” said Ronald Koeman.
2024-07-19 08:43:14
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