{"id":28286,"date":"2026-07-11T01:47:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/28286\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T01:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:47:19","slug":"thibaut-courtois-suffers-injury-in-belgiums-world-cup-defeat-to-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/28286\/","title":{"rendered":"Thibaut Courtois suffers injury in Belgium\u2019s World Cup defeat to Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Madrid<\/a> goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois<\/a> was forced off with a hamstring injury during Belgium<\/a>‘s World Cup quarterfinal defeat to Spain<\/a>, raising fresh concerns for both club and country.<\/p>\n

Courtois had been one of Belgium’s standout performers at SoFi Stadium, producing several important saves to keep his side in the contest before his night came to a premature end in the 72nd minute. The Madrid shot-stopper left the pitch visibly emotional after attempting to play through the injury.<\/p>\n

The problem first emerged just after the hour mark when Courtois went down following a routine play. After receiving treatment during a hydration break, he initially signaled that he was able to continue. However, only a few minutes later, the discomfort worsened, forcing Belgium to replace him with Senne Lammens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the match, Courtois explained how the injury developed.<\/p>\n

“It was a bit of a pain, but oh well. On a long ball, I felt something, I thought my hamstring was tight because I’d played 30 long balls. I felt it a little on some saves, and on another long ball, I felt it getting worse. I sat down for a moment so the doctor could check it out, and I wanted to keep playing, but I couldn’t hit the ball, and the manager told me that if I wasn’t 100%, he’d substitute me. I said I felt bad, that I couldn’t play long balls, but I wanted to continue to see how it went. If I didn’t have to play long balls, I could continue, but it’s fine. If the manager wants someone who’s 100%, it’s no big deal.”<\/p>\n

The injury is an unwelcome development for Real Madrid, particularly given Courtois’ recent history with muscle problems. The Belgian had only recently put a right quadriceps injury behind him after returning to action in May and had enjoyed an injury-free run until Friday’s setback.<\/p>\n

Courtois also suggested he could take a step back from international duty after the World Cup, leaving the door open to a temporary break from Belgium.<\/p>\n

“Regarding my future with the national team, we’ll see. I’d perhaps like to take a break from the Nations League, as it’s not the most important thing. And maybe return for the Euro qualifiers. But ultimately, it’s a decision the federation has to make. If not, then perhaps today was my last match.”<\/p>\n

Reflecting on Belgium’s elimination, Courtois felt his performance had given his team every chance to remain in the game.<\/p>\n

“It’s bad luck that the rebound went to Fabi\u00e1n. In the second half they had more chances. I felt good about the saves, the balls over the top, Lamine’s crosses. I felt it was going to be very difficult to score a second goal against me.”<\/p>\n

He also came to the defense of substitute goalkeeper Senne Lammens after his costly error led to Mikel Merino<\/a>‘s goal, urging supporters not to blame his teammate.<\/p>\n

“It’s true that the pitch is very dry, it’s bad luck, in the end that’s football, you shouldn’t crucify the guy, he’s a great goalkeeper, he’s had a great season at United and he doesn’t deserve this.”<\/p>\n

Real Madrid will now await the results of further medical assessments to determine the severity of Courtois’ injury, hoping the issue proves to be only a minor setback ahead of the new season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was forced off with a hamstring injury during Belgium‘s World Cup quarterfinal defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,13827,13652,15676,2323,2061,3721],"class_list":["post-28286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-california","tag-inglewood","tag-quadriceps-injury","tag-real-madrid","tag-senne-lammens","tag-thibaut-courtois"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116898827185359156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}