Justin Kluivert will not report for duty with the Netherlands on Monday. The attacking midfielder will miss Bournemouth's game against Liverpool on Sunday and, according to manager Marco Rose, will be out for several weeks with injury, meaning he will miss the first international break under head coach Xavi Hernández.
Kluivert picked up the injury on Thursday evening in the Europa League match against Real Sociedad in San Sebastián. Bournemouth won 1-2 on their European debut, with Kluivert playing a leading role by scoring the opener after just 11 minutes.
Even with the injury, the Dutchman stayed on for a long spell and only came off in the 84th minute for David Brooks. Rose then made clear a few days later that Bournemouth will be without him for the time being. "Justin suffered an injury in San Sebastián. We will have to do without him for a few weeks. It is nothing very serious, but it needs time."
Xavi now has to improvise straight away with his first squad as Netherlands head coach. Kluivert was part of the 26-man group due to report in Zeist on Monday afternoon, 21 September, for the start of a busy international period.
Over the coming weeks, the Netherlands play four Nations League matches. They start on Thursday, 24 September at the Johan Cruijff ArenA against Germany, before games against Serbia, Greece and Serbia again.
Logic suggests Xavi will call up a replacement after Kluivert's withdrawal. Feyenoord captain Luciano Valente and PSV midfielder Guus Til look like the two most obvious candidates, although it is not yet clear whether the head coach will add another player to his squad.
Til was still part of the Dutch squad under Ronald Koeman at the World Cup, but Xavi left him out of his first group. PSV coach Peter Bosz said on Friday that he was surprised nobody had informed his midfielder personally. "He did not even get a phone call. That is quite remarkable, because he was still there at the World Cup."
By contrast, Valente made his case on the pitch on Sunday with Xavi in the stands for Feyenoord's 5-0 win over FC Utrecht. The midfielder scored from the penalty spot and admitted afterwards that he had hoped for an invitation: "Of course you are disappointed. Secretly, I had hoped a little that I would be in it, but I have to speak with my feet and I did that today."