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The Netherlands have suffered a major setback ahead of the FIFA World Cup after defender Jurrien Timber was ruled out of the tournament due to a groin injury, the Dutch football federation announced on Monday.
According to ESPN, the 24-year-old Arsenal full-back, who last featured as a substitute in Arsenal's UEFA Champions League final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, will leave the Dutch camp following the team's final World Cup warm-up match against Uzbekistan. "The 24-year-old defender has not recovered sufficiently from a groin injury to take part in the World Cup in a medically responsible manner," the Netherlands said in a statement, according to ESPN. "In consultation with the medical staff, it has therefore been decided that Timber will leave the national team's pre-camp in New York after the game against Uzbekistan," the statement added. Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman has drafted in Sunderland defender Lutsharel Geertruida as Timber's replacement ahead of the tournament. "Over the last couple of days, we'd already had the feeling that this would be the decision. In the end, we sat down with Jurrin late last night and again this morning, and unfortunately, we had to make this decision," Koeman told Dutch broadcaster NOS, as per ESPN. "With Jurrin in the squad, we have eight defenders; without him, there are seven, and that's not enough. So you have to make a decision. We had Geertruida with the squad right up until the match against Algeria, so it wouldn't be too much of a struggle to bring him in. We didn't wait any longer because his situation wasn't expected to improve any time soon," Koeman added. Timber managed around an hour on the pitch in Arsenal's Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain, including extra time, before the match was decided on penalties. However, Koeman declined to blame the Premier League club for the player's condition. "You can't blame the club, and I don't want to either. It is clear, however, that those minutes didn't help," he said. "If he'd only had to play one more match in the coming period, it might still have been possible. But a major tournament wasn't on the cards. He hasn't been fit for a long time and still has symptoms that aren't healing quickly, meaning he won't be match fit in the short term," the Dutch coach concluded. The Netherlands begin their World Cup campaign against Japan on June 14 before facing Sweden and Tunisia in the group stage. (ANI)
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