🚨 De Ligt undergoes surgery and will miss the World Cup | OneFootball

Matthijs de Ligt will miss this summer’s World Cup after undergoing back surgery.

As Manchester United have confirmed, the operation is the final step in a recovery process that lasted six months without success.

The Manchester United centre-back has not played a single match since 30 November 2025, so his participation in the World Cup was already virtually ruled out.

The club and the player exhausted all conservative alternatives before making the decision to go ahead with surgery. "After six months of treatment and hard work, surgery was the only option left," De Ligt wrote on Instagram.

At 26, De Ligt had been a regular at the Netherlands’ major international tournaments: he featured at Euro 2021 and Euro 2024, as well as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The Dutch national team therefore lose one of their most experienced centre-backs at a critical moment. 

Manchester United expect the defender to be available in the opening weeks of the new season.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

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