Exclusive: Liverpool concerned about £63million-rated star after UEFA decision

National teams will be able to take 26 players with them to the Euros this summer and Liverpool are concerned that the Dutch FA will take van Dijk even if he's not ready.

On Tuesday the 27th of April, it was confirmed that in order to "lessen the load on players after a [compressed] club season", national teams will be able to take 26 players to the European Championships.

This is good news for the vast majority of clubs, players and teams that will be involved in this summer's tournament but it's raised major concerns for Liverpool Football Club.

Virgil van Dijk, valued at £63million by Transfermarkt, is returning from a career-threatening ACL injury that he suffered in October last year after a dangerous challenge from Everton's Jordan Pickford.

Anfield Central was told in March that Liverpool would not stop van Dijk from attending the Euros.

We now understand that there are concerns from the club that the ability to take name 26 players in their squad this summer will lead the Netherlands to take the 29-year-old even if he's not ready.

Liverpool fans will remember how Fernando Torres travelled to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup with Spain despite not being fully fit only to return with his ankle injury worse than it was before.

He was never quite the same player afterwards and transferred to Chelsea in 2011 for £50m and while it's a stretch of the imagination to suggest a similar fate could await van Dijk, the reinjury rates with ACL ruptures are alarmingly high.

Liverpool's ideal scenario is a selfish one, admittedly, but they do pay the Dutchman a huge amount of money.

Ideally, he'd stay at Kirkby over the summer, return to team training ahead of pre-season and slowly build up his fitness before returning to the heart of the defence for the 2021/22 Premier League season.

However, they understand how important playing at big international tournaments is to top players.

Furthermore, van Dijk has a genuine chance of returning from the competition with a winner's medal and from Liverpool's perspective, it would be catastrophic to prevent him from competing if it harmed their relationship.