On Saturday, the Netherlands will take on the U.S. in this year’s FIFA World Cup Round of 16. But before getting to that match, it looks like the Dutch have another hurdle to clear. Netherlands manager Louis van Gaal said in a news conference Friday (seen above) that several members of his team are battling the flu:
🚨 – Van Gaal: "There are multiple players within the squad who have catched a flu."
• Could it influence anything for tomorrow, should we worry?
Van Gaal: "Well if it starts floating around in the squad, then it's worrying." pic.twitter.com/NNSqRM6RrX
— 𝐀𝐅𝐂 𝐀𝐉𝐀𝐗 💎 (@TheEuropeanLad) December 2, 2022
A report from Dutch media outlet Sportwereld indicates star midfielder Frenkie de Jong may be one of the impacted players:
It seems that the flu has also hit the Dutch camp (after the Brazilian one) before their World Cup round-of-16 match tomorrow. They won’t say how many players are sick, but it appears all-important playmaker Frenkie de Jong is among them. https://t.co/2mnBga77mc
— Leander “same handle *elsewhere*” Schaerlaeckens (@LeanderAlphabet) December 2, 2022
When U.S. head coach Gregg Berhalter was asked about this, he said much of the U.S. staff also had flu-like symptoms earlier in this tournament:
The Dutch (Brazilians too) have had flu symptoms, likely due to icy A/C everywhere. Berhalter said US, too: “We had it also… the staff, almost every staff member had it. I was, the first week or two it was really, really bad. But now it’s much better, breathing a lot better”
— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) December 2, 2022
It’s unclear how much of an impact this will have on Saturday’s match, if any. We don’t know how serious these flu symptoms are, or how they’ll affect players’ on-pitch performance. (And outstanding performances even amidst flu-like symptoms certainly have happened in sports, although the origin of the issue for some of those can be debated.) But, as van Gaal said, there certainly are some concerns here for the Dutch, particularly if this spreads throughout their team.
[ Leander Schaerlaeckens on Twitter; photo from Danielle Parhizkaran/USA Today Sports]
