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World Cup 2010: Arjen Robben's injury is devastating admits Netherland's striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
The Oranje's resources will be squeezed...
6 Jun 2010 14:33:00
By Jesse Wieten, translation by Stefan Coerts
EXCLUSIVE
World Cup hopefuls Netherlands were sent into a state of shock on Saturday after seeing their talismanic winger Arjen Robben sustain a hamstring injury.
Despite cruising to a comfortable 6-1 victory over Hungary, in which Robben scored twice, the Bayern Munich player's finals now appear to be hanging in the balance.
Striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Khalid Boulahrouz all acknowledged post-match that Robben's injury was a huge blow for the Oranje's tournament preparations.
"We've recorded a good result, but this is very disappointing for Arjen [Robben]. This is a huge blow, but we have to wait and see how serious the injury is," Huntelaar told Goal.com.
The Netherlands were optimistic of a fruitful tournament in South Africa, where they have been matched with Denmark, Japan and Cameroon in Group E.
However, Dutch defender Boulahrouz admitted their confidence had been severely knocked with the tricky winger's injury.
"This comes at a very bad moment and we can only hope that it's not too bad," he said.
"It's very sad to see Arjen leave the pitch like this. I've had some hamstring injuries too in the past and a hamstring injury could be very tricky.
"There's time to recover when something like this happens halfway through the season, but this is a really bad moment."
Van Bronckhorst also acknowledged the injury to one of their stellar-performers could not have come at a worse time.
"The mood in the dressing room [after the international friendly] wasn't too good," he added.
"We were satisfied with the 6-1 win, but Arjen's injury was a huge blow for us. He was in a lot of pain, but it's not yet known how serious it is.
"I would have been happier if we had lost the match and could have travelled to South Africa with a fully fit squad."
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World Cup hopefuls Netherlands were sent into a state of shock on Saturday after seeing their talismanic winger Arjen Robben sustain a hamstring injury.
| Bet: | Returns: | Netherlands £10.25 | Draw £95.00 | Northern Ireland £260.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Netherlands £10.00 | Draw £560.00 | Northern Ireland £710.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Netherlands £11.25 | Draw £80.00 | Northern Ireland £190.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Netherlands £11.10 | Draw £85.00 | Northern Ireland £210.00 |
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| Bet: | Returns: | Netherlands £10.90 | Draw £110.00 | Northern Ireland £250.00 |
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Despite cruising to a comfortable 6-1 victory over Hungary, in which Robben scored twice, the Bayern Munich player's finals now appear to be hanging in the balance.
Striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Khalid Boulahrouz all acknowledged post-match that Robben's injury was a huge blow for the Oranje's tournament preparations.
"We've recorded a good result, but this is very disappointing for Arjen [Robben]. This is a huge blow, but we have to wait and see how serious the injury is," Huntelaar told Goal.com.
The Netherlands were optimistic of a fruitful tournament in South Africa, where they have been matched with Denmark, Japan and Cameroon in Group E.
However, Dutch defender Boulahrouz admitted their confidence had been severely knocked with the tricky winger's injury.
"This comes at a very bad moment and we can only hope that it's not too bad," he said.
"It's very sad to see Arjen leave the pitch like this. I've had some hamstring injuries too in the past and a hamstring injury could be very tricky.
"There's time to recover when something like this happens halfway through the season, but this is a really bad moment."
Van Bronckhorst also acknowledged the injury to one of their stellar-performers could not have come at a worse time.
"The mood in the dressing room [after the international friendly] wasn't too good," he added.
"We were satisfied with the 6-1 win, but Arjen's injury was a huge blow for us. He was in a lot of pain, but it's not yet known how serious it is.
"I would have been happier if we had lost the match and could have travelled to South Africa with a fully fit squad."
Become a fan of Goal.com UK's Facebook fan page for all the latest news and insight into everything related to the beautiful game!
No trip to South Africa is complete without a visit to its most beautiful and sunniest city. Durban offers much more than sandy beaches, safaris, casinos and the World Cup, for information on what to do and see, please click here
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Make Your Prediction
Netherlands - Northern Ireland
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Northern Ireland
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Netherlands 3-0 Northern Ireland
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Netherlands 3-1 Northern Ireland
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Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland
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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.
Hosted by Joe Doyle
Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
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