Holland’s most experienced player, Rafael van der Vaart, has been ruled out of the World Cup after picking up a calf injury in a training session on Tuesday.
A statement on the national team’s website read: “Rafael van der Vaart will miss the World Cup in Brazil. The Holland international has a calf strain in his right leg. Coach Louis van Gaal has therefore decided not to include him in the final selection.”
The 31-year-old Hamburg midfielder, who has 109 international caps and appeared at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, was in contention to make Van Gaal’s 23-man squad, which is due to be named on Saturday.
Holland have already lost two key players to injury, Roma’s Kevin Strootman and PSG’s Gregory van der Wiel, and open their World Cup campaign on 13 June against Spain – a repeat of the 2010 final – and will then play Australia and Chile in a tough Group B.