Jurrien Timber injury
Jurrien Timber injury
A manager can call a player available and still leave him out of the first match. Squad limits force three names off the list. The one coming back from a long injury is the easy cut.
An individual programme on the training pitch is the other half of that decision. The club and the national team agree the load. The opening fixture is not worth the risk.
Four games in an extended window give them time. Thursday does not have to be the night he starts.
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Xavi has insisted Jurrien Timber is available for the Netherlands, even after omitting him from the squad to face Germany. The new Oranje coach had to trim three players because of numbers restrictions.
He had said earlier this week that Timber could play.
“We are now focused on Thursday night, not on the rest of the matches,” Xavi said. “We are ready. We have to be a bit careful with Jurrien Timber, who was injured for a long time. But he is available, that goes for everyone.”
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Timber did not train with the main group on Tuesday. Voetbal International reported he is on an individual programme, agreed with Arsenal, because of the after-effects of his groin injury. There is no new setback.
He has played 45 minutes against Sunderland and 60 at Brighton this season, his first start since 14 March. Arsenal left him out of the Carabao Cup tie at Ipswich entirely.
The Netherlands play Germany at home on Thursday, then Serbia and Greece away, then Serbia at home. That run is long enough to bring him in later if the groin holds.
Timber himself called his Champions League final appearance “a miracle” and said he only felt right that week after 25 weeks out around the World Cup. He pulled out of the tournament after talks with Ruud van Nistelrooy, then had a minor procedure.
Arsenal’s concern is the same as Xavi’s. Get him through this camp without another six weeks on the sidelines. Leeds at home on 10 October is the club date that matters.
Available, in this case, means he can train and he can be picked for the later games. It does not mean he starts in Amsterdam on Thursday. The squad list already answered that.