Belgium national team manager Marc Wilmots has hinted that the international career for Vincent Kompany may be over due to the player’s numerous injury problems.
The Manchester City captain is an important part of the national team’s structure, but he has been unable to make any impact whatsoever in the last two years. It has also been the case with his club. After making only 22 appearances in all competitions for City last season, even his future at Etihad stadium has been questioned a number of times. Outgoing manager Manuel Pellegrini was the first to admit thatKompany may leave City for a new start.
At 30 years of age,Kompany will be thinking about extending his club career rather than focusing on international football. A thigh injury has ruled him out of the Euro 2016, butWilmots may have been expecting such an eventuality. After all, the player has played less than 600 minutes of action in the qualification campaign for Belgium. The presence of an unreliable player – in terms of injury – presents a lot of problem to the manager. Admitting these for the first time,Wilmots claimed that Belgium may be ready to look at a new centre back pairing in the hope of getting some stability on the back.
“We need time to establish this defence. An understanding will come, especially with the high pressing we tried.We had Kompany and Van Buyten before, we must now build a new central defensive pairing for the future of the Rode Duivels,” said the Belgian manager after the 1-1 draw with Finland. “You can see things in different ways. Our four defenders played high and created chances, but face it, there were five Finnish defenders and it was difficult to find an opening,” continued Wilmots about the game itself.