Virgil van Dijk misses the European Championship because he continues to recover from his knee injury, but, according to English media, he is playing a role 'behind the scenes' of his team, the Netherlands, during the tournament, since Frank de Boer , coach of the 'oranje', considers that for his players it is very important to have close to the one who, since 2018 and until his illness, was their captain. Van Dijk helps motivate his teammates, although his is not an official position.
Van Dijk was seen sitting behind the Dutch team bench last week during the friendly against Scotland in Portugal (2-2). The defender, who made his debut for the Netherlands in 2015 (38 games played with the 'oranje' so far, is satisfied to be able to collaborate in this way with his team, since the torn ligaments he suffered in October in the derby against Everton, after a tackle by Jordan Pickford, prevented him from playing this European Championship as a player, as he dreamed of, it would have been the first final phase of a great tournament in Van Dijk's career.
The 29-year-old defender works to be in the best shape possible when Liverpool enter the preseason on 12 July. But it will do so from the concentration of the Netherlands and at the same time it will carry out this role in the 'oranje', which in the first phase of this European Championship will face Ukraine on June 13, Austria on June 17 and North Macedonia the 21st.
Frank de Boer said about Van Dijk: “Virgil is so important to this team, a huge motivating factor that has been important to the guys in recent years. The team loves his presence.” Hence, the Dutch coach and former Barcelona player proposed to the Liverpool defender to carry out this work of support and motivation of an unofficial nature with the 'oranje', which did not qualify for the European Championship in France 2016 or for the World Cup in Russia 2018.