And their team is still frightening.
Belgium have already had to deal with the loss of captain Vincent Kompany ahead of Euro 2016 and now his central defensive partner Nicolas Lombaerts is out for the tournament too.
The Zenit St Petersburg back who has played 39 times for his country has been rocked with a hamstring injury and Belgian boss Marc Wilmots broke the news that he will be replaced with Genk defender Christian Kabasele.
Lombaerts ne sera pas dans la sélection officielle pour l'EURO. Christian Kabasele rejoint la sélection ce soir. #belfin #tousenfrance
— Marc Wilmots (@WilmotsMarc) May 30, 2016
Celtic player Dedryck Boyata has also had to pull out from the running for the 23-man and, still, through all of that, Belgium’s defensive options hardly look like they’re missing anyone.
Wilmots has two main options to cover the loss presumably. One is to pull Jan Vertonghen in from left back and have the Spurs defensive partnership (Toby Alderweireld the other half of that) manning the 18-yard box for their country too. Or he could just play Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen and go with the ridiculously strong team that started against Switzerland on Saturday.
That team is missing their two central defenders…
Ireland play the Belgians on June 18 in Bordeaux for the second group game and even if they can recover from these setbacks like the bloody T-1000 in Terminator 2, the on-fire Shane Long will be keen to get a crack at the second-string. However strong they are.
But, Jesus, they are strong.
🇧🇪defence
❌ Kompany
❌ Lombaerts
❌ Boyata
❌ Engels
✅ Vermaelen
✅ Denayer
✅ Kabasele
✅ Ciman
✅ Alderweireld
✅ Vertonghen
✅ J. Lukaku
✅ Meunier— Kristof Terreur (@kristofterreur) May 30, 2016
