Ibrahim Afellay has made the penultimate shortlist of Bert van Marwijk’s Netherlands squad for Euro 2012 despite spending most of the season recovering from a knee injury. Having returned to training pitch in April and given valuable minutes playing with Barca seems to have been enough to convince Vasn Marwijk that the 26-year-old player has recovered completely and is ready for the big competition. It was a belief shared by Pep Guardiola, who started the player in the match against Real Betis.
The 36-player list was further narrowed down to 27 with Afellay making the cut. The nine players to miss the trip to Ukraine and Poland are Urby Emanuelson, Hedwiges Maduro, Alexander Büttner, Jasper Cillessen, Ola John, Erwin Mulder, Nick Viergever, Stefan de Vrij and Georginio Wijnaldum. Afellay won’t be able to join his national teammates at the training camp in Lausanne, which begins today, due to club commitments – Barca take on Athletic Bilbao in Copa del Rey final on May 25. As a result, the player won’t be available for Holland’s friendly against FC Bayern München on May 22 and will miss the match against Bulgaria on May 26 too.
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