Steven Bergwijn sent home from Netherlands duty for fitness issues

Another Tottenham Hotspur player is staying home for the international break. According to @ONSOrange, the official Twitter account of the Netherlands national team, Steven Bergwijn has been sent back to North London after being declared “not fit.”

If you run this (short) article through the Google machine you get the following:

Steven Bergwijn has left the training camp of the Dutch national team. The Tottenham Hotspur attacker was examined by the medical staff of Orange on Monday, upon arrival in Zeist. It turned out that he is not fit enough and that the Orange matches must pass by.

National coach Frank de Boer is not calling for a replacement, so the selection of the Dutch national team now consists of 24 players.

So I’m already seeing some pretty bad takes on Twitter that imply that he’s “pulling an Ndombele” or some such, but the truth is that I’m not certain Bergwijn has ever fully recovered from the hamstring injury he suffered just before the COVID-19 shutdown last season. The release above certainly makes it sound like whatever problem he’s having is more injury related than actual fitness.

In truth, if Stevie’s carrying an injury (or struggling to recover from one) it would his more recent Tottenham performances make a little more sense. He hasn’t been good lately, but I’m certainly more amenable to be forgiving over his performances if he’s still dealing with a hamstring tweak.

And anyway, keeping Stevie home to rest and recover from whatever’s bothering him is certainly better than trying to play on a bum hamstring. Let’s wait and see.