Dejan Lovren has revealed the details of his recent conversation with Virgil van Dijk over the Dutchman’s continuing recovery from injury.
The No.4 has been sidelined since mid-October following a reckless challenge by Jordan Pickford in the Merseyside derby.
“We talked about his recovery, about the knee. You know that Virgil has a serious injury – the cruciate ligaments are damaged,” the Croatia international told Sport Express (via HITC). “Moreover, when this happened, at first he did not even feel anything: he starts to walk – everything is fine, and after a few steps it gets worse and worse.”
“But I hope he will be back in service soon. I advised van Dijk not to speed up the recovery for Euro 2020,” Lovren added. “If the risk of relapse persists, it is best to wait. Virgil is young for a center-back, only 29 years old. There will still be major tournaments in his career.”
The former Liverpool man left Anfield for the Russian Premier League last summer, an absence in the squad that Jurgen Klopp will no doubt be rueing in light of the injuries sustained to Joe Gomez and Van Dijk.
While we desperately miss our star centre-backs, the Zenit man’s advice is one we’re hoping Virgil will continue to internalise going forward.
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It’s possible that the Dutch international could make a return to the pitch for the Reds toward the end of the season.
However, should any complications occur along the way, we’d hope that the former Southampton man would not risk his recovery efforts for the sake of the international tournament.