Blind: Netherlands have about 15 injuries now

Netherlands coach Danny Blind has voiced his frustration with his side’s ongoing physical problems in the wake of their 2-1 Euro 2016 qualification win over Kazakhstan on Saturday.

The Dutch were without the likes of Arjen Robben, Kevin Strootman, Stefan de Vrij and Quincy Promes among others due to injury heading into the game and saw goalkeepers Jasper Cillessen and Tim Krul pick up knocks in Astana.

“It looks like nothing normal happens any more. This is getting extreme now,” Blind told NOS.

“First there was Jasper’s injury when we were warming up and then later on Tim got injured as well. It looks like a bad injury.

“We are missing about 15 players now.

“But I have seen players getting injured all over the globe in qualifiers.”

Blind gave Kenny Tete, Virgil van Dijk, Anwar El Ghazi and Jeroen Zoet their international debuts in Saturday’s Group A encounter and he was impressed with the performances of the Southampton defender and the Ajax full-back.

“Van Dijk put in a fantastic performance at the back. And Tete did a fine job as well. They are in fine form and I never had any doubts about them.

“We were in control for 60 minutes, but forgot to add a third goal.

“We struggled a bit from there on because of their opportunistic style of play.”

Saturday’s victory kept Netherlands’ chances of reaching Euro 2016 alive with just one more game to go.

Blind’s men currently sit third in their group with 13 points from nine games, but will drop to fourth place again if Turkey either draw or beat Czech Republic later on Saturday.

The Dutch meet Czech Republic on October 13, with Kenneth Vereer in their squad to replace Krul, while Turkey take on Iceland.