Netherlands handed boost as Bart Verbruggen rejoins group practice after hip injury

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/verbruggen-bart/6PChQYLj/"]Verbruggen[/a] suffered a hip injury in the nation's last friendly before the World Cup, landing awkwardly on his hip during the match against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/uzbekistan/EZYKKRMc/"]Uzbekistan[/a]. The [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/brighton/2XrRecc3/"]Brighton[/a] stopper, who was diagnosed with a bruised hip, was taken off shortly after and was replaced by Bayer Leverkusen's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/flekken-mark/INE64p13/"]Mark Flekken[/a].[/p][image alt="Bart Verbruggen receives treatment after taking landing awkwardly against Uzbekistan" id="7afb3839-9ac8-46e9-b4e9-f551545ebf3b" credit-line="ANP / Sipa USA / Profimedia" guid="efb88e14-6a3b-446d-9e6d-494387479bca" original-width="1400" original-height="933" /][p]The 23-year-old Verbruggen was kept apart from the group in the days after, working an individual program to ease him back into a full workload. Verbruggen rejoined group practice on Friday, though it's unknown whether he lasted the full session, as Friday's practice took place behind closed doors.[/p][p]The Netherlands open their World Cup campaign on Sunday against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/japan/ULXPdOUj/"]Japan[/a], who Oranje will meet in Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas. [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/japan-ULXPdOUj/netherlands-WYintcWb/?mid=4SV9xFBO"]The Group F match[/a] is set to kick off at 22.00 CET.[/p][infobox id="4ccc1b10-d68f-4c97-bcf4-5e613c17c2e3" /]