Football: Belgian relief as Kevin de Bruyne to join squad on Monday
Kevin De Bruyne
Kevin de Bruyne has had minor surgery on the eye socket he injured in the Champions League final and will join the Belgium squad on Monday to prepare for the Euro 2020 tournament, Belgian coach Roberto Martinez told a news conference.
There had been fears that key midfielder De Bruyne could miss part or all of the finals, but Martinez says the surgery he required was only a "small intervention".
"It's not a surgery that needs a long time recovery. This was a procedure just to make sure that the area is stronger. It took 20 minutes and everything went very well," Martinez told reporters at a news conference at the team's training centre in Tubize.
De Bruyne fractured his nose and a bone around his left eye socket in last Saturday's Champions League final playing for Manchester City in their 1-0 defeat against Chelsea.
The recovery of the 29-year-old will be a huge relief for Martinez as he attempts to steer Belgium, who are ranked the number one team in the world, to a first European title.
They open their campaign next Saturday against Russia in St Petersburg and will also play Denmark and Finland in their pool.
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Before that, they take on Croatia in a final warm-up fixture on Sunday, having been held 1-1 by Greece in their previous friendly.
"(It's) a team with a lot of technical ability in the midfield area, a lot of pace, a completely different proposition (from the one) we have and it's a good opportunity for us to keep adding that sharpness and that concentration that we need in order to be ready for the Russian game," Martinez added.
Also speaking ahead of the friendly encounter, Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic said his line-up lacks the experience his team had at the World Cup three years before but said he still expected to achieve good results.
Croatia's first match in Euro 2020 will be against England, a team the Croats kicked out of the 2018 World Cup in the semi-finals.
"Surely England will have the semi-final we played at the World Cup in its mind. They will seek revenge but it's not the same to play at home (at Wembley Stadium on June 13). We expect England to be aggressive from the start of the match," Dalic said.