Courtois confirms he will miss Euros with Belgium due to injury, attacks coach

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is currently recovering from his torn anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered just before the start of the season, and is due to be fully fit before the end of it. However he will not return to Belgium duty before the end of the summer.

There had been reports that he was planning on skipping the Euros in Germany this summer, but those rumours were denied. During a bombastic interview with Sporza in Belgium, Courtois in fact confirmed that was the case though, and explained that he would not be able to prepare for the tournament in the manner he would like. Relevo carried his words.

“Due to the injury, there will be no European Championship for me. First I have to recover 100% completely and then it is better not to set a date for it. If I am lucky, I can play another match in May. But you can never be 100% ready for a big tournament.”

He was also unhappy with Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco. Last summer he left the Belgium camp early ahead of a match with Austria, after reportedly being frustrated with the fact that Tedesco had awarded the captaincy to Romelu Lukaku and not him. Courtois apologised for doing so.

“Well, first I would like to apologise for that. It was a wrong decision to leave after the game against Austria. I would like to apologise to the team and especially to the fans. I think those two groups were the most surprised. Therefore: 100% my I apologise and I’m sorry.”

“On Saturday of the match, a few hours before kick-off, Tedesco called Lukaku and me in. When he said that Romelu was captain against Austria and I was captain against Estonia on Tuesday, something broke inside me. It no longer worked. The fact that I no longer felt the appreciation of the federation or