Pro Shots
NOS Sport•vandaag, 06:28
“No, it’s certainly not a gesture.” National coach Paul van Ass has allowed hockey player Eva Drummond, as Eva de Goede has gone through life since her marriage to South African hockey player Tim Drummond, to return to the Dutch team, which meets today, after more than a year of absence. But that is certainly not a “nice thing” because of her track record.
Although this is of course beyond dispute, Van Ass also believes. “She is one of the Netherlands’ greatest hockey players and has contributed a lot to the status of Dutch women’s hockey at the moment. We should not take that lightly. But it is possible. for top sport.” And there is no room for presents, he wants to say.
Hockey national coach Van Ass: ‘Calling Eva is certainly not a gesture’
That present was not forthcoming when he announced the selection team for the European Championships earlier this year. The hockey player had announced in October 2022 that he wanted to take a break from playing as an international player, partly to continue recovering from a serious knee injury after the World Cup won with the Dutch team. She made herself available again in April.
Van Ass took it for granted. “I was not afraid to say: it is not convenient for me right now. I was going in a different direction with the group and breaking away from the past. I did not call her up for the European Championship at the time.”
Fantastic report
Would this be the end of the international career of the midfielder, who recently turned 34, with 258 caps to her name? “Yes, of course that goes through your mind,” admits the three-time Olympic and three-time world champion. “I think that makes sense if you are left out. And then it is really fantastic that this message came and I can show it to the Dutch team.”
Pro League and Games
The Dutch hockey players start the Pro League in Argentina in December with matches against Great Britain, Argentina and Great Britain again. A series of matches will follow in India in February.
The Dutch team will then play in the Pro League in Utrecht and Amsterdam in June, before the Olympic Games start in Paris at the end of July. As European champions, the Netherlands has already qualified for this.
She still has to convince Van Ass. Drummond was still called De Goede when she tore an anterior cruciate ligament and suffered a damaged meniscus at the end of 2021. A period of rehabilitation followed. And a race against time to be fit in time for the World Cup in your own country. That mission succeeded, at the last minute. “I was an outsider at the time,” says Van Ass, “but I looked at it and it felt a bit fragile.”
Without the two-time world player of the year (2018 and 2019), the Dutch women won European gold for the twelfth time last summer. No reason for Van Ass not to give Drummond a chance to rejoin the selection. “The time was right for it. I am very curious whether she can now again make the contribution she has made in the past.”
Hockey national coach Van Ass: ‘Her drive is 100%, but is the form and fitness still there?’
“The drive is one hundred percent certain,” says the national coach. “I see that in everything and I also notice that in her. But it is also a matter of seeing whether the form is still there, whether the fitness is still there. I will only find out when I see her in the selection of the Dutch team. From there I can better judge whether she can add value in hockey or perhaps not. I don’t know that yet.”
Nice ending
Drummond, who left top club Amsterdam for low-flyer HGC in the summer of 2021 after ten years, was somewhat surprised by the invitation. “A bit, yes. I was hoping for it, but when you haven’t been there for a year, it’s unexpected.”
But now she will fight for her spot. “Well, I’ve always had to fight. You never have any guarantees. I never had them, so neither do I now. In that respect it’s no different. It’s a slightly different situation because I haven’t been there for a while.” “I’ve been there. That makes it exciting. And difficult. But I’m also really looking forward to it.”
Drummond will fight for her place: ‘I always had to do that,’
She feels that she has come a lot further, both physically and in hockey, than during the World Cup and secretly turns a blind eye to next year’s Olympic Games in Paris. An emphatically beckoning point on the horizon, which could provide a wonderful moment to put an end to her career single-handedly, at least as an international. “Yes. But I don’t throw everything on that.”
“I’m just going to see how it goes. We first have Pro League matches in Argentina and that’s what I’m focusing on now. Of course that’s somewhere on the horizon, a bit further away. But I haven’t set all my sights on it yet. I want to keep it close to myself, just play hockey myself first, see how it goes and where I stand. Enjoy it too. I’m sure that if I do that, in any way, it will have a nice ending sit.”
2023-10-24 04:28:27
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