Defender Jurrien Timber, Arsenal’s highly anticipated signing in the summer of 2024, has been dropped from the Dutch team participating in EURO 2024.
Timber is 22 years old and has 15 caps for the Netherlands national team but was not on the list after coach Ronald Koeman’s preliminary squad was announced early Friday morning (Vietnam time). This is completely understandable because Timber has been absent almost the entire season due to injury.
A serious knee injury suffered in the opening round of the Premier League season forced Timber to miss almost the entire 2023/24 campaign and only recently returned to join the Gunners’ reserve team. The Dutchman is likely to feature on the bench for Arsenal in their final match of the season against Everton on Sunday.
According to many sources, the Dutch Football Federation will have until June 7 to announce the final squad for the summer tournament in Germany but seems to have erred on the side of caution due to the injury of Timber, who may Fully energized when the tournament started.
However, Timber’s absence helped pave the way for Chelsea defender Ian Maatsen, who is on loan to Dortmund, to have a chance to join the squad. However, to be able to make his debut, Maatsen must be given the opportunity and hopes to participate in the friendly matches against Canada and Iceland before playing the opening match of the group stage against Poland on June 16.
Returning to Timber, this player’s absence does not affect the dominance of stars playing in the Premier League such as Mark Flekken, Micky van de Ven, Virgil van Dijk, Nathan Ake, Cody Gakpo, Bart Verbruggen and Ryan Gravenberch. In addition, Jurrien Timber’s brother, Quinten, who plays for Feyenoord, was also called up.
Besides, there are also names that are unfortunately absent. We can mention Bologna striker Joshua Zirkzee or Ajax defender Jorrel Hato, 18 years old, who debuted last year.
Netherlands national team squad for EURO 2024
Goalkeeper: Bijlow, Flokken, Olij, Verbruggen
Defenders: Ake, Blind, Van Dijk, Dumfries, Frimpong, Geertruida, De Ligt, Maatsen, Van de Ven, De Vrij
Midfielders: Gravenberch, De Jong, Koopmeiners, Reijnders, De Roon, Schouten, Simons, Timber, Veerman, Wijnaldum
Strikers: Bergwijn, Brobbey, Depay, Gakpo, Malen, Weghorst
