Miedema abandons last bit of World Cup hopes: ‘Focus on next season’

The Oranje women will definitely have to do without the top scorer of all time at next summer’s World Cup. Vivianne Miedema has lost the last bit of hope that she will recover in time from her cruciate ligament injury.

“It’s just not realistic. Sure I want to be there and I want to go to Australia and New Zealand. But it’s just not realistic, unfortunately it really comes too soon,” the soccer star told NOS.

“It’s also not fair From me to go along half fit and take someone else’s spot. If I can do something for the girls or the staff, I’m happy to do it. But on the field I won’t be there.”

Watch a clip of the interview with Miedema here, which will be shown in detail on NOS.nl and TV later this week:

The 26-year-old Miedema suffered a torn cruciate ligament in December. That injury carries a recovery time of at least nine months.

The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand begins July 20, seven months after Miedema was injured. With a “Memphis Depay-like” recovery (the Oranje striker had recovered from a cruciate ligament injury in 2020 after six months, after which the European Championship was postponed for a year because of corona), she might have been fit in time.

In December, Miedema immediately expected she would have to miss the World Cup, although at the time she still secretly held out hope for a meteoric recovery. “If a miracle happens, I might be there. But I’m not assuming it,” she said then.

“Of course I would love to be there at the World Cup, but I also hope to continue playing soccer for a few more years. And this just brings a lot of risk.”

There is a strikingly high incidence of cruciate ligament injuries in top women’s soccer. Why that is, we explain in this video.

With 94 goals in 112 international matches, the Arsenal striker is the top scorer of all time with the Oranje. Miedema debuted at for the Dutch national team in 2013 and was instrumental in the 2017 European title. She was also active at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, the 2021 Olympics and the 2022 European Championship.

The Netherlands will gather in Zeist today for a training camp ahead of the World Cup. Practice matches with Germany (April 7) and Poland (April 11) are scheduled.