Donny van de Beek

Solskjaer: The break's been good for Donny

Saturday 03 April 2021 22:30

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is confident that the two-week international break will have been a positive one for Donny van de Beek.

The midfielder spent much of February and March on the sidelines with a muscle injury, returning only for the 3-1 defeat at Leicester City in the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final.

That start was van de Beek’s first since a 73-minute appearance against West Ham in the previous round, six weeks earlier.

While the former Ajax man was only afforded 24 minutes to impress for the Netherlands in the World Cup qualifiers, he did manage to net his third goal for the Oranje in the 7-0 thrashing of Gibraltar.

It was a confident, left-footed finish from Donny, something Ole has already noticed more of on his return to training.

The boss also looked back to his own career when saying how getting away and joining up with the national side could help refocus the efforts.

“He scored some absolute crackers in training this morning!” Ole told reporters on Friday afternoon, in the second part of his press conference to preview Sunday's visit of Brighton.

“Sometimes, it’s natural that if you don’t play, you have injuries, you lose a bit of confidence, that spark.

“You go away with your national team… I can talk from my own experience. Sometimes I went away to play with Norway and came back, just to get the feel about yourself back and feel better.

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“He’s come back and, in training this morning, he scored some absolute top, top goals that I’d be really proud of myself.

“It’s done him the world of good going away, scoring a goal for Holland.

“We hope we can see a lot of that for the next seven or eight weeks of the season and then to kick on again.”

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