Netherlands star Xavi Simons out of World Cup and Tottenham’s relegation fight because of injury

LONDON (AP) — Netherlands midfielder Xavi Simons will miss the World Cup as well as relegation-threatened Tottenham ‘s final Premier League games of the season after sustaining a right knee injury.

In an emotional post on Instagram, the 23-year-old Simons — one of the best Dutch players at the European Championship in 2024 — said he is “heartbroken” and that “none of it makes sense.”

Simons screamed in pain and grabbed his knee following a challenge by Wolverhampton defender Hugo Bueno in the second half of Tottenham’s 1-0 win on Saturday that renewed the team’s hopes of staying in the top flight. He was carried off on a stretcher.

Simons wrote “my season has come to an abrupt end and I’m just trying to process it.”

“All I’ve wanted to do is fight for my team and now the ability to do that has been snatched away from me … along with the World Cup,” he wrote. “Representing my country this summer … just gone.

“It’ll take time to find peace with this, but I’ll continue to be the best teammate I can be. I have no doubt that together we’ll win this fight.”

Tottenham remained in the relegation zone, in third-to-last place and two points from safety, despite its first league win in 2026 and is in big danger of losing its top-flight status for the first time since the late 1970s. Tottenham has four games left this season.

Simons, who joined from Leipzig for 60 million euros ($70 million) in the offseason, hasn’t been a regular starter for Spurs but has been in the lineup in recent matches under newly hired manager Roberto De Zerbi.

He helped the Dutch reach the semifinals at Euro 2024 and was expected to be key for the team at the World Cup, where they’re in a group with Sweden, Tunisia and Japan

Their first match is against Japan on June 14.

“I’ll walk this path now, guided by faith, with strength, with resilience, with belief, as I count down the days to getting back out there,” Simons wrote. “Be patient with me.”

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HAVANA (AP) — On a recent afternoon, a group of elderly residents slipped through the wooden doors of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Old Havana and gathered for a modest meal of ground meat, rice, red beans and crackers topped with mayonnaise — all finished with a cup of strong Cuban coffee.

“May the Lord bless from his height, the meal our belly will take with delight,” they chanted in unison before beginning their lunch, a ritual that takes place three times a week in the dining hall adjacent to the church.

Among the nearly 50 elderly people was Carmen Casado, an 84-year-old retired chemical engineer who attends without fail. Her monthly pension of 2,000 Cuban pesos is equivalent to $4 at the informal exchange rate that people use on a daily basis. She lives alone, has no children and does not receive remittances from relatives abroad.

She says the church meals are a needed supplement to the meager rations, such as bread, rice and beans, that she can obtain for free from state-run stores, or bodegas.

“This is a lifeline for us retirees with small pensions,” said Casado, speaking in a rapid-fire tone. “What we get from the bodegas alone is not enough.”

The elderly are among the hardest hit by the severe economic crisis on the island, which has worsened dramatically since the beginning of the year following an oil embargo imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Most are former government employees — teachers, doctors, nurses, technicians, custodians, lawyers — whose pensions are usually less than $10 a month and who must face cuts to the basket of goods that have been subsidized for decades, as well as the loneliness brought on by the growing emigration of young people.

They were young when Fidel Castro entered Havana and lived through all the major events on the island, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to U.S. President Barack Obama shaking the hand of Raúl Castro in 2016.

Now, their revolutionary spirit is being tested in the latest crisis, which is forcing them to sell cigarettes on the streets, line up for a loaf of bread and seek free meals offered by churches and some state institutions.

After lunch, Casado walked the four blocks home to tend to household chores she still performs without assistance. Her home is on the second and top floors of a 19th-century building that, like many in the capital, is falling apart.

Born in 1942, Casado was a teenager when the revolution led by Castro triumphed. Her life has spanned the island’s most defining moments, from the 1962 Missile Crisis to the so-called Special Period following the collapse of the Soviet Union. She also lived through the 1970s and 80s, when the island’s economy was heavily subsidized by the Soviets and when the Cuban system seemed to promise a brighter future.

“This is our life; we were born and raised here,” she said.

Even before the economic crisis worsened and before the wave of emigration over the past five years, Cuba was already one of the countries with the oldest populations in Latin America, a trend nudged further by high life expectancy and low birth rates.

According to Cuba’s National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2024, almost 26% of the population was aged 60 or older. That is almost twice the regional average of 14.2% in the same year, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, CEPAL.

The last five years have seen a population decline in Cuba of nearly 1.5 million, primarily due to migration. The number of Cubans residing on the island, which stood at 11.1 million, has fallen to just 9.7 million.

The impact of the crisis and the exodus of youth is visible at a glance. Elderly people walk the streets alone —some rummaging through trash, others standing in long lines for the bread and rice provided by the ration book, the basic subsidized foods the state guarantees to every Cuban.

The plight of the elderly is so critical that the government recently authorized private entrepreneurs to operate elder care services and residential facilities, a move marking a significant departure from the island’s traditional model of total state control.

Casado insists that she is still privileged. She is mentally sharp and has no physical impairments — she doesn’t even use a cane — and manages entirely on her own. Her only medication is half a tablet for blood pressure, which, “so far,” remains available at the state-run pharmacies.

Despite the poverty and loneliness, she continues to have faith in the government and blames the country’s woes on the United States.

“We’re doing everything we can here to move the country forward,” she said. “But the thing is, we have a very powerful enemy, and he’s right there, right on our doorstep.”

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america