Arsenal defender Jurriën Timber, 24, will not play in the 2026 FIFA World Cup after failing to recover from a groin injury sustained in mid-March, the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) said on June 8 and 9 [1, 2].
Timber appeared as a substitute for about an hour, including extra time, in the Champions League final on May 30 but was deemed not medically fit for World Cup competition [3, 1, 4, 2]. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said Timber was “fit” before the final match against Paris Saint-Germain [1].
The Dutch FA announced that Timber would leave the national team's pre-camp in New York after their friendly against Uzbekistan on June 8 [1, 2]. Coach Ronald Koeman said, “Over the last couple of days, we'd already had the feeling that this would be the decision. In the end, we sat down with Jurriën late last night and again this morning, and unfortunately we had to make this decision.” [2]
Koeman added that the injury situation was not expected to improve soon, saying, “We didn't wait any longer because his situation wasn't expected to improve any time soon.” [2] He explained the difficult squad decision: “With Jurriën in the squad, we have eight defenders; without him, there are seven, and that's not enough. So you have to make a decision.” [2]
Timber has earned 23 caps for the Netherlands and had been struggling with the aggravated groin injury since March, which limited his preparation for the tournament [1]. Sunderland defender Lutsharel Geertruida has been called up as his replacement [3, 1, 4, 2].
The Netherlands will open their World Cup Group F campaign against Japan on June 14, followed by matches against Sweden and Tunisia [3, 1, 2].
