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Virgil van Dijk is on track to be fit for the European Championship later this yearaccording to Holland’s head coach Frank de Boer.
Liverpool center-back Van Dijk has been out since the 2-2 draw with Everton in October, when he suffered a serious knee ligament injury following a strong challenge from Jordan Pickford.
Since then, Van Dijk’s influence has been notable in his absence for the Reds, for whom he played an integral role in ending their 30-year wait to win the English top flight title in 2019-20.
Last season, Van Dijk attempted more passes (3,255) than any other defender in the Premier League., while only two other defenders with more than 1,500 had a better completion rate than him (89.2%).
In addition, Trent Alexander-Arnold (3,664) was the only defender to have more touches of the ball than Van Dijk (3,624), his 239 duels won was the fifth best among rearguard players and his 191 aerial victories were surpassed by only James. Tarkowski (199).
Van Dijk has posted a series of videos on social media recently, including one in Dubai where former Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf helped the defender with his rehabilitation.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said recently that Van Dijk still “has a long way to go” and it is unclear whether he will play for the defending champions for the rest of this season.
But De Boer has said optimistically that the 29-year-old, who is the captain of the Dutch national team, should be a candidate to play in the delayed Euro 2020 tournament provided he does not suffer any setbacks.
De Boer told De Telegraaf: “If Virgil doesn’t get a backlash and things go a bit faster than expected, he should be able to get to the opening match of the European Championship on June 13 against Ukraine.
“He is busy with so much energy. If you see what he’s doing … In my time you were only allowed to kick in the pool.
“It is very important for our team, on and off the field.”
Van Dijk has won 38 games for the Netherlands since he made his debut in October 2015.
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