Netherlands coach Van Marwijk: Nigel de Jong went too far
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Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk has justified his decision to leave Nigel de Jong out of the Dutch squad for the upcoming Euro 2012 qualifiers against Moldova and Sweden.
With his tackle on Sunday De Jong broke Newcastle United's Hatem Ben Arfa's tibia and fibula of his left leg. The Manchester City midfielder already had a bad reputation.
"My first reaction was: This is enough. He went too far," Van Marwijk said during a press conference in Noordwijk. "Nigel has already been involved in a number of incidents before and I discussed those incidents with him. So far no further action seemed to be required. But this was simply too much."
"After I saw what he did on television my decision to drop him was already made. Later on I contacted my assistants Frank de Boer and Phillip Cocu and we came to the same conclusion. I was also afraid that the whole preparation for the matches against Moldova and Sweden would suffer if Nigel was part of the squad."
"I am not proud of this decision, because this case only has losers," Van Marwijk stated. "First of all Hatem Ben Arfa. I wish him a quick recovery. I think of Nigel as well. He is such a nice guy with a winners mentality. And I am a loser as well, because I lost an important player."
"I tried to call Nigel on Sunday evening to tell him about my decision but I didn't come through. Then I talked to him on Monday morning and I told him he was left out of the squad. I also said there was no need for him to do these kind of things in his game. We agreed to talk further after the next two matches. He was disappointed, but I think he did understand it a bit."
Van Marwijk will decide on selecting De Jong in future games after the two have talked about the situation. "But as far as I'm concerned his international career is not over yet."
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