Van Dijk will not be holding back at Liverpool to preserve himself for World Cup 2022

If any Liverpool player could be forgiven for keeping one eye on the upcoming World Cup during the early stages of this season, it would surely be Virgil van Dijk.

Only last summer, the Dutchman missed out on what would have been the first major tournament appearance of his career as a result of a serious knee injury suffered at Everton the previous October.

He was, in fact, fit enough to have made an appearance at those delayed Euros, but chose to stay home in order not to run the risk of a setback in his rehabilitation.

And that decision was rewarded with a return to his imperious best as Liverpool took a quadruple charge to the final weeks of the last campaign.

Clearly, the fact that a mid-season World Cup awaited just 18 months later played a big part in convincing Van Dijk to take a patient approach to his international ambitions.

So, with that long-term goal now agonisingly close to being realised, it is only fair to ask if the defender’s focus on club matters might be affected.

However, the man himself has now emphatically insisted that is not the case, and said: “If you think about this I think you are going to have issues in my opinion. It is just game-by-game and that includes international football.

“[Beating Ajax] was a big one for us, now I and certain players have internationals and other players will train and play friendlies in order to stay fit and get fit and we will get players back after the internationals.

“For me it is two games against Poland and Belgium and then it is Brighton so that will be the focus. I'm not focusing on what is happening in November.”

HOW THE NETHERLANDS QUALIFIED FOR WORLD CUP 2022: (Group G): March 24, 2021. Turkey 4 (Yilmaz (15', pen 34', 81'), Calhanoglu 46') Netherlands 2