{"id":257,"date":"2026-04-11T18:25:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/257\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:25:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:25:46","slug":"world-cup-netherlands-forward-kluivert-eyes-return-from-knee-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/257\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: Netherlands forward Kluivert eyes return from knee surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOURNEMOUTH, England (AP) \u2014 Netherlands forward Justin Kluivert is \u201cin a rush\u201d to return from knee surgery in time for the World Cup<\/a>, Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said Friday.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Kluivert, who was injured in early January, played in six of the Netherlands\u2019 eight games in their World Cup qualifying campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He had scored two goals for the Cherries this season before the injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustin, I think, is doing a very good recovery,\u201d Iraola said at a press conference. \u201cHe is on the time margins that we expected \u2014 everything is going fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s in a rush because he wants to play before the season ends. He also wants to keep his options for the World Cup alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iraola cautioned, however, that they can\u2019t do \u201cstupid things\u201d that would jeopardize Kluivert\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to give the time that the injury needs,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope he can play before the season ends. It\u2019s not going to be easy. He will have to progress as well as he\u2019s doing, because he is doing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kluivert, the son of Dutch great Patrick Kluivert<\/a>, returned to the national team under coach Ronald Koeman in November 2024 after a six-year absence.<\/p>\n

The Dutch open their World Cup campaign against Japan on June 14 in Group F. They also face Sweden and Tunisia.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOURNEMOUTH, England (AP) \u2014 Netherlands forward Justin Kluivert is \u201cin a rush\u201d to return from knee surgery in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[362,361,365,360,6,363,368,367,364,366],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-afc-bournemouth","tag-andoni-iraola","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-justin-kluivert","tag-netherlands","tag-netherlands-national-soccer-team","tag-patrick-kluivert","tag-ronald-koeman","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}