Monthly Archives: July 2016

Belgium may be considered as one of the dark horses for the Euro 2016, but only if they have the best players like Eden Hazard and Tomas Vermaelen fit and ready to play.

Both these players have been suffering from several injury problems during the 2015-16 campaign. Even though Hazard has shown signs of returning to his best in the last few weeks for Chelsea, his presence still remains doubtful owing to the multiple injury concerns. Thomas Vermaelen, meanwhile, has been a very injury prone player in the last two years so much so that Barcelona are now reportedly considering the sale of the player.

Vermaelen, though, has been included in the Belgium squad for the tournament. Due to the impressive talent within the squad, Belgium are rated as one of the dark horses for winning the title. However, their opening match is against former world champions Italy and it could be a stern test for the team. A big worry for Belgian manager Marc Wilmots is the availability of Hazard and Vermaelen for the opening game. While Chelsea winger Hazard had to go out of training with a little limp, Vermaelen has been considered as a major doubt for the game throughout the week.

Wilmots, though, claimed that he remains confident that both players will be able to feature against Italy.”Thomas has done well in training over the last days and is completely ready for the battle. He has no more problems.I don’t think it is serious [Hazard injury], just a knock,” said the Belgian manager. Belgium are in the group that contains Italy, Sweden, and Republic of Ireland. This is widely seen as the group of death since all teams can potentially reach the next stage of the competition. Ireland and Sweden take on each other in their opening matches.
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