Euro 2016: Injury rules Jan Vertonghen out of the tournament
Jan Vertonghen’s ankle injury has devastatingly ruled him out of the Euro 2016 championships in France. The Belgian was already set to miss their quarter-final clash against Wales but his injury turned out to be far more serious.
Belgium coach Marc Wilmots revealed that he had a scan at Lille and it turned out that he had torn two of the three external ligaments in his ankle. He is expected to be ruled out for 8 weeks.
Vertonghen played at left-back for Belgium in the ongoing tournament but was an option to move to centre-back against Wales to cover for Thomas Vermaelen's suspension.Wilmots will have some decisions to make now, one possible option would be to have Jason Denayer partner Toby Alderweireld in central defence, with 21-year-old Jordan Lukaku at left-back.
Vertonghen wished his team-mates good luck for the rest of the competition and said that he was ‘Gutted to say that my Euros is over’
Also read: Bale slightly better than Hazard: Lukaku
The Belgian defender will also probably miss the start of the Premier League season with Tottenham and will take a while in getting back to full fitness.
Coach Wilmots didn’t look too thrilled in the press conference. He said, "I'm not going to talk about a tragedy because there are far more tragic things in life but it is a sporting tragedy for him. He was a very important player for us. Mentally and physically he was completely fit and he had a lot of desire but unfortunately on a specific movement he has done 10,000 times, he turned his ankle."
Wales manager Chris Coleman was also asked how much of an impact Vertonghen's injury would have on the match in his Thursday press conference but he insisted his team must focus on themselves.
"He's a good player, an outstanding performer, if he misses the game it's a big loss, but they have so much talent, but we can't look past ourselves," Coleman told reporters.