The Netherlands will have to manage without several star players in the big game against France when the European Championship qualifiers start on Friday.
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According to De Telegraaf, the players have long complained about the food they get at the players’ hotel Woudschoten in Zeist south of Amsterdam. The national team has stayed at the hotel in the run-up to the meeting with France in Paris.
The Dutch football association KNVB first reported that several players were ill due to a virus.
But now the major newspaper De Telegraaf points to another reason:
On Wednesday, the players were served chicken curry. That same evening, several players had stomach problems.
On Tuesday morning, Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo, Bayern Munich’s Matthijs de Ligt, Newcastle’s Sven Botman, PSV’s Joey Veerman and Anderlecht’s Bart Verbruggen were so ill that national team manager Ronald Koeman sent them home.
The five players will not be allowed to play in Friday’s match against France. Monday’s meeting with Gibraltar may also fail, according to De Telegraaf.
– The five are not out for the entire period. It depends on how things go with them, says Koeman.
According to De Telegraaf, not all the players ate the chicken curry, which is now being blamed for weakening the Dutch national team.
Virgil van Dijk says according to NOS that he was shocked that several of the players suddenly had to go home due to illness. But about the food poisoning, he says:
– I have no idea where that story comes from. I had the chicken curry myself and it was delicious. If it was the cause? I have no idea. Nobody knows anything.
Koeman will not comment on the chicken curry story.
– I don’t think this is the time to speculate.
Published: 23.03.23 at 18:31
