Ronald Koeman gives worrying Virgil van Dijk update as Liverpool captain's absence explained

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Liverpool FC NewsFeaturesVirgil Van DijkVirgil van Dijk did not take a penalty for the Netherlands in a penalty shootout loss to Morocco, and boss Ronald Koeman explained why after the gameVirgil van Dijk's hopes of winning a World Cup look to be over(Image: 2026 FIFA)Ronald Koeman said that Virgil van Dijk did not take a penalty during the Netherlands' shootout loss to Morocco due to a fitness issue.Van Dijk rarely takes penalties, but he has faced criticism for failing to step up as the captain of his country after Ronald Koeman's men were dumped out of the World Cup at the last-32 stage.The 34-year-old has only taken one penalty in regulation time during his career, and that was for the Netherlands in a Euro 2024 qualifier against Greece, which he scored.And in the 11 penalty shootouts that Liverpool has been involved in since Van Dijk joined the club, he has only taken one – scoring against Kepa in the 2022 EFL Cup final shootout win over Chelsea.Despite it not being unusual that Van Dijk didn't take a penalty in the shootout, Koeman was forced to field questions over his captain's decision not to take a penalty."Van Dijk had already indicated during the match, in extra time, that his calf was bothering him badly," Koeman explained."Summerville had a cramp. So ultimately, it came down to who would take the fifth penalty, because at that point we didn't know yet whether Summerville would drop out or be able to take a penalty."Wout Weghorst was fourth on the list; due to this situation, he became the third taker.

If Summerville hadn't said he was going to take the penalty, Virgil would have taken it."Morocco blinked first in the shootout, as Neil El Aynaoui missed his country's first penalty of the shootout, but Justin Kluivert, Quinten Timber and Crysencio Summerville all missed for the Netherlands, to send Morocco into the next round against Canada.Morocco's players celebrate after qualifying for the last 16(Image: 2026 Getty Images)"[It's] very difficult to analyze it now," Van Dijk said after the game, per Vi.nl. I think we were well organized defensively."They basically couldn't find the open man between the lines.

I think we scored a good goal."Ultimately, in injury time, you get pushed back. Then it goes to penalties; unfortunately, we get knocked out."If you look at almost all the big teams at the World Cup: they also just drop back and they also wait for the right moment to apply pressure."We trained hard on this for two days; at times it went well.