ROBIN VAN PERSIE, the captain of the Netherlands, has declared himself 100% fit for the World Cup as the Dutch national side arrived in Rio de Janeiro.
The Manchester United striker was withdrawn at half-time of his country's final warm-up game against Wales in Amsterdam on Wednesday with a groin issue but insisted it was only a precautionary measure after some discomfort.
Van Persie added that he had also fully recovered from the knee injury which kept him out action for two months towards the end of the Barclays Premier League season.
"Against Wales, I stayed behind in the changing room for the second half just to be careful because the match against Spain is much more important," he said of the opening game for the Dutch in Salvador on Friday - a repeat of the 2010 final.
"My groin was progressively a little irritated. If it had been a sudden pain I would been concerned but you can't really even call it an injury.
"I've had no twinges from the knee since the injury healed and that's several weeks now. I've had to make an effort to get my fitness back and that I've build up perfectly in training over the last weeks."
The Dutch will also face Chile and Australia in World Cup Group B.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article