A major setback has hit the Netherlands camp ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Xavi Simons has been ruled out after suffering an ACL injury, just 45 days before the tournament begins.<\/p>\n
The Dutch midfielder sustained the injury during recent action and medical assessments have now confirmed a long-term absence. Initial reports indicate that Simons will be out for around seven months. This effectively ends his season and rules him out of the World Cup in North America.<\/p>\n
Simons has been a key figure for both club and country. His absence is a big blow for the Netherlands, who were expected to rely on his creativity and attacking threat. The 21-year-old has shown strong form in recent months and was seen as one of the players to watch at the tournament.<\/p>\n
The injury also impacts Tottenham Hotspur, where Simons has been an important part of the squad. The club will now have to adjust their plans for the remainder of the season without one of their most dynamic players.<\/p>\n
For the Netherlands, the timing could not be worse. With less than two months left before the World Cup kicks off, the coaching staff must now rethink their midfield options. Replacing a player of Simons\u2019 quality will not be easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A major setback has hit the Netherlands camp ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Xavi Simons has been ruled\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":48077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4658],"tags":[3943,3686,1823,2182,1019,1303,5323,3577,4151,5322,1747,1162,5321],"class_list":["post-50503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-world-cup","tag-acl-injury","tag-david-ornstein","tag-fabrizio-romano","tag-fifa-2026","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-injury","tag-netherlands-football","tag-roberto-de-zerbi","tag-ruled-out","tag-simmons","tag-spurs","tag-tottenham-hotspur","tag-xavi-simmons"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50504,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50503\/revisions\/50504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}