Netherlands midfielder Xavi Simons will miss the World Cup as well as relegation-threatened Tottenham \u2018s final Premier League games of the season after rupturing the ACL in his right knee.<\/p>\n
In an emotional post on Instagram, the 23-year-old Simons \u2014 one of the best Dutch players at the European Championship in 2024 \u2014 said he is \u201cheartbroken\u201d and that \u201cnone of it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simons screamed in pain and grabbed his knee following a challenge by Wolverhampton defender Hugo Bueno in the second half of Tottenham\u2019s 1-0 win on Saturday that renewed the team\u2019s hopes of staying in the top flight. He was carried off on a stretcher.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Tottenham confirmed Simons ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and will undergo surgery \u201cin the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone at Tottenham Hotspur sends Xavi our love and support \u2014 we will be with him every step of the way,\u201d the club said.<\/p>\n
In his Instagram post, Simons wrote \u201cmy season has come to an abrupt end and I\u2019m just trying to process it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I\u2019ve wanted to do is fight for my team and now the ability to do that has been snatched away from me \u2026 along with the World Cup,\u201d he wrote. \u201cRepresenting my country this summer \u2026 just gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll take time to find peace with this, but I\u2019ll continue to be the best teammate I can be. I have no doubt that together we\u2019ll win this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tottenham remained in the relegation zone, in third-to-last place and two points from safety, despite its first league win in 2026, and is in big danger of losing its top-flight status for the first time since the late 1970s. Tottenham has four games left this season.<\/p>\n
Simons, who joined from Leipzig for 60 million euros ($70 million) in the offseason, hasn\u2019t been a regular starter for Spurs but has been in the lineup in recent matches under newly hired manager Roberto De Zerbi.<\/p>\n
He helped the Dutch reach the semifinals at Euro 2024 and was expected to be key for the team at the World Cup, where they\u2019re in a group with Sweden, Tunisia and Japan<\/p>\n
Their first match is against Japan on June 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll walk this path now, guided by faith, with strength, with resilience, with belief, as I count down the days to getting back out there,\u201d Simons wrote. \u201cBe patient with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ekitike, Yamal, Salah \u2026 injuries mounting ahead of World Cup<\/p>\n
Simons joins France striker Hugo Ekitike (Achilles) in being ruled out of the World Cup after sustaining a late-season injury.<\/p>\n
There are also concerns over the fitness of Spain winger Lamine Yamal, Egypt star Mohamed Salah and Brazil forward Estevao ahead of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Yamal was ruled out for the rest of the club season last week after sustaining a muscle injury in his left leg while converting a penalty for Barcelona in a La Liga match. Barca said its medical staff \u201cforesee that (Yamal) will be available for the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salah picked up a suspected hamstring injury playing for Liverpool in the Premier League on Saturday. Liverpool manager Arne Slot said he did not know if Salah would play again this season.<\/p>\n
Estevao will miss the rest of Chelsea\u2019s season with a hamstring injury and is a doubt for the World Cup.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n
Steve Douglas, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netherlands midfielder Xavi Simons will miss the World Cup as well as relegation-threatened Tottenham \u2018s final Premier League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-631813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}