Timber ruled out of 2026 World Cup with groin injury

Netherlands have confirmed Jurrien Timber will miss the 2026 World Cup with a groin injury.

Timber suffered the problem on March 14 in Arsenal’s win over Everton, and only returned during the Gunners’ Champions League final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain on May 30.

The Arsenal defender was a huge doubt for the showpiece, but he managed to appear off the bench after the hour mark for Mikel Arteta’s side. 

Timber appeared in five of Netherlands’ qualifying games for the World Cup, while he also featured four times at the 2022 edition of the tournament.

Nevertheless, the 24-year-old will miss out this time around, with Sunderland’s Lutsharel Geertruida named as his replacement.

Netherlands released a statement which read: “Jurrien Timber misses the 2026 World Cup.

Jurriën Timber misses the 2026 World Cup.

The 24-year-old defender has not recovered sufficiently from a groin injury to take part in the World Cup in a medically responsible manner. In consultation with the medical staff, it has therefore been decided that Timber will leave the… pic.twitter.com/r6Wu8FRCfP

— OnsOranje (@OnsOranje) June 8, 2026

“The 24-year-old defender has not recovered sufficiently from a groin injury to take part in the World Cup in a medically responsible manner.

“In consultation with the medical staff, it has therefore been decided that Timber will leave the national team’s pre-camp in New York after the game against Uzbekistan.”

This will be Netherlands’ 12th World Cup appearance. No other team has finished runner-up as often as the Dutch without ever winning the trophy (three times – 1974, 1978, 2010).

Netherlands have won 54.5% of their matches at the competition (30 out of 55, shoot-outs excluded); only Brazil (66.7%) and Germany (60.7%) have a higher win rate in the history of the tournament.

Ronald Koeman’s side begin their World Cup campaign on June 14 against Japan, before also facing Sweden and Tunisia in the group stage.