Liverpool talisman Virgil van Dijk opens up on his journey out of injury hell

Virgil van Dijk fresh from imperious performances against Inter Milan and Norwich City, sits in a room at the sleek new Liverpool training ground in Kirkby and listens to the question. It is a little simplistic but he listens anyway. 

‘Are you back to your best?’ He laughs gently at it and even though he is not the type of man to nurse anger, there is a tinge of resentment in that laugh.

‘How would you determine “my best”?’ he says. So I mention the 39th minute of the game at San Siro 10 days ago. 

The Champions League tie between Inter and Liverpool is goalless when the ball breaks to Lautaro Martinez, one of the best strikers in the world, the spearhead of the Italian champions, near the halfway line, and there is just Van Dijk between him and Alisson.

And Van Dijk looks impossibly cool and relaxed. There is no hint of panic. Nothing other than supreme confidence that he can deal with this and that this man will not beat him. 

Van Dijk dances gently on the spot, perfectly balanced, ready to go right or left, stands off him and shepherds Martinez to his left. And the danger fades to nothing.

A couple of minutes later, a ball is played in from the Inter left and into the path of Edin Dzeko. Dzeko runs on to it and his first touch takes him towards goal. Then Van Dijk appears. 

He does not even touch the ball. He blocks Dzeko off and the ball runs harmlessly into the hands of Alisson. Dzeko throws up his arms in frustration. Van Dijk continues to dominate. A couple of minutes from the end, Dzeko goes up for a header and Van Dijk climbs high above him to power it clear.

It has been 17 months since Liverpool’s colossus ruptured his right anterior cruciate ligament after a challenge by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. 

The day after we speak, Van Dijk anchored his side to a 6-0 defeat of Leeds United at Anfield that took Liverpool to within three points of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League and gilded another commanding performance with an stoppage-time headed goal.

He nods at the analysis of where his game stands but what has irked him is that he has been given little credit for the way he has recovered from a career-threatening injury which left him needing to learn how to walk again, let alone play again, and which forced him to confront the doubts that assail every player who suffers the kind of injury that makes them wonder if they will ever be the same player again.

Van Dijk, 30, whose Liverpool team play Chelsea on Sunday in the Carabao Cup final, is a man who exudes quiet confidence and self-assurance but he noticed that any mistake he made since he returned at the start of this season was seized upon by some television analysts and other observers as evidence he would never get back to being the defender he had been before his injury.

When Antoine Griezmann got the better of him to score for Atletico Madrid in a Champions League game last October, it was the same. 

Van Dijk was too casual, some fans said. A Spanish newspaper gave him a zero rating for his display. Some shook their heads and said he would never get back to his best. A few days later, he was subjected to more criticism for a display against Brighton.

It was as if observers wanted to pretend Van Dijk’s knee injury had never happened. It was as if they expected him to return to his best immediately, even though he had missed more than 300 days in rehabilitation. 

It was as if nobody considered the pain and doubts that afflict a player. It was as if there was no room for gradual improvement towards a goal. It was as if the goal had to be achieved without any setbacks along the way.

Pep Lijnders, Liverpool’s assistant boss, talked about those doubts when he contributed to an in-house feature on Van Dijk’s recovery that was aired near the start of the season. 

Lijnders talked about ‘the voice in your head that says it’s all gone, the voice that says you will not make it, other players will catch you’. Van Dijk heard that voice, too. He is open about that. He says it is normal. He says that the voice has gone away.

‘It was always going to take time from the pre-season until now,’ says Van Dijk. ‘I feel very good. I think the winter break really helped me, to get away with my family, to get some time to really switch off, not to think about football and the pressure we are all under.

‘I felt a little bit taken for granted at times, like people were acting as if nothing had happened and everything was normal. 

‘I had to really switch off and get myself clear in my head and make sure I told myself that everything that is happening right now is quite good and be proud of it.

‘It isn’t really normal, after the injury I had, to be able to already play that amount of games and the level I had already reached, in my opinion. 

‘So there were a lot of things going through my head before the break. I needed to have time with my family, switch off, clear my head and recharge so I was ready to go. I went on a nice beach holiday far away with my family and my kids and it was really needed.

‘The games before the break, I felt I had good games but to keep that consistent level and also the level that everyone expected of me was always like a pressure. It was a thing that played a part in my head a little bit, not much but still…

‘Even if I had a good game, I felt like no one appreciated it as much as they should. 

‘Not that I’m insecure and need to have confirmation all the time, not at all, but I felt like coming back from an ACL/MCL [anterior or medial cruciate ligament] injury and playing the amount of games I have played so far, playing three games a week, it is quite good and should not be overlooked. And it was overlooked in my opinion.’

The statistics bear out Van Dijk’s instincts. After the injury he suffered, the manner of his return for Liverpool this season has been remarkable. 

He has started more games and played more minutes for the club than any other outfield player. He has led the team in other ways, too, as he has helped them back into the thick of a title race with City. 

In passes made this season, he ranks No 1 at Liverpool. In aerial battles won this season, he ranks No 1. In clearances made, he ranks No 1. By any measure, could we really have expected any more from a player coming back from what he has come back from?

‘I saw some of the comments about the Griezmann goal,’ says Van Dijk, ‘and I know I could have done better. In any game, there are moments where you could have done better. 

‘The injury was not the issue. I am my hardest critic and I will always know when I do things well and I don’t do things well.

‘It was always the thing that people were saying “He is not coming back as good as he wanted” but when you play a good game, it’s “He’s back to his best”. 

‘There was never anything in the middle — that “He’s on the way to where he wants to be”. So those things were definitely in my head at some points.

‘There are doubts in your head about whether you will come back the same. That’s normal. You overthink everything. You are full of pain. You can’t do anything. 

‘My family, especially my wife, were key in getting me through that but Andy Williams, the surgeon, was a very big part of that as well. He assured me — without making promises — that things would be fine and throughout the process, I have been in contact with him. 

‘I am a guy that is always asking questions. I would rather ask too many questions. If I felt some things, the flexion or the extension was not as good as I thought it should have been, always ask questions.

‘From the moment I went into pre-season with the boys in Austria, I felt I needed to climb the ladder again physically and mentally to get where I want to be. 

‘The aim was to play the first game of the season regardless. That was my aim from when I cancelled the Euros. That was also a tough decision to make but I felt it was the best decision to make to be ready for the next season.

‘I felt like I needed to climb this ladder towards the first game of the season and do what I need to do for it. Dr Andreas Schlumberger, the club’s head of recovery, was a big part of that as well. 

‘It was before I started pre-season that I had some doubts. If you are running on your own and feel a little bit of stiffness, you start to wonder if it is going to be normal again.

‘I got to the point last month where I needed a break. That was clear for me and it helped me and now I am determined to kick on, enjoy the rest of the season, whatever the outcome, go to the World Cup hopefully, enjoy that, and be the player I always want to be.’

Van Dijk’s injury was the most decisive factor in the collapse of Liverpool’s title defence last season. 

His absence, combined with a freak series of injuries to other central defenders, destroyed Liverpool’s attempts to compete with Manchester City. 

This season, with Van Dijk and Joel Matip restored to the team and Ibrahima Konate recruited from RB Leipzig, they are challenging on four fronts.

City’s defeat by Spurs last weekend and Liverpool’s subsequent demolition of Leeds brought them to within touching distance of City. 

After so long out with injury, Van Dijk, who will captain the Netherlands at the World Cup later this year, is relishing the rush of challenges flying towards him.

‘I have nothing to prove,’ he says. ‘That’s not because I feel I am the best version of myself. It’s more that I know I can get better. 

‘I just want to go out there, play the best football I can with this beautiful club I am playing for on the highest level and I want to give it my all, try to win trophies, try to compete, to get success.

‘I am not training each and every day to go out and lose games. I am trying to win games and trophies and get success, with Liverpool and the national team. 

‘Those are things I want to give everything for and if it works, I am proud and happy and in tears, like I was at the Champions League because those are things you shouldn’t take for granted. I cried when we won the Premier League, too.

‘When you are a little boy watching these competitions, those are the things you dream about. 

‘You wish to be able to play in those leagues but it never crossed my mind back then I would be able to lift these two trophies or be the captain of the national team but here I am and I am enjoying it and I am giving everything I have got and if that brings trophies at the end of the season that makes me happy, my family happy, the fans happy, the club and team happy.

‘If it doesn’t, I am still happy and satisfied with my life. I come from a little boy who had a dream to become a professional football player, I have made it and that’s what I am happy with. In general, I am happy anyway. I am grateful. I am blessed.’