FOOTBALL – Thijs Oosting (21) has had a hard time with his new club Willem II in recent weeks. The Emmen tore during a training the cruciate ligament of his right knee. He also saw trainer Fred Grim leave, who brought him to the club. In addition, there are also major relegation concerns in Tilburg.
“Fortunately, I have had few injuries in my life”, Oosting responds. “I’ve always played whole seasons: game after game. And now I suddenly have something that is quite bad and that came fairly out of nowhere. So that is extra sour for me.”
‘I heard a crack’
And it all started so beautifully for 21-year-old Drent. In his debut game in Tilburg, Oosting immediately scored twice. Precisely against RKC, the club where his father Joseph is a trainer. But less than three weeks later, disaster struck. During a training session he made an unfortunate misstep and in the process tore the cruciate ligament of his right knee. As a result, he will certainly be out of circulation until the fall.
“I felt a snap and I heard a crack and I knew enough right away,” recalls Oosting. “Thijs had surgery three weeks ago,” physiotherapist Charlon Pattikawa continues. “He will be on crutches for at least six weeks. But things are going in the right direction. He had a check-up last week and they were happy.”
“Last week the stitches were removed,” says Oosting. “The wounds are healing well and I’m getting my knee back in shape a bit. And that also gives me the idea that things are really going in the right direction.”
Long out of circulation
But all in all, it will be a long history anyway. “Ultimately, our aim is to hopefully be able to send him back to the South around seven months,” says Pattikawa. And that means that Oosting would not be able to take his first cautious steps on the training field until around October.
“I’m in no rush. Of course I want to play football again as soon as possible. But I also know, through experiences within our family, that if you go too fast, you can easily fall back,” says Oosting.
Because knee problems are no stranger to the Oosting family. Besides father Joseph, Thijs’s uncles also had to deal with knee injuries. “I don’t want to see it as a family ailment, because then you get stuck in it and then you think: I can’t help it. But let me put it this way. It does occur a lot in our family.”