Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk concedes he may have played 'too many games' this season

Virgil van Dijk has admitted he jeopardised his own form and fitness by playing on last autumn when he should have missed some games.

The Netherlands international felt a weight lift from his shoulders on Wednesday when scoring the opening goal in Liverpool’s crucial 2-0 win over Wolves, a victory that keeps them on the periphery of the race to qualify for the Champions League.

Van Dijk knows he will receive a sterner test on Sunday when Manchester United arrive at Anfield than from a Wolves attack that haven’t been prolific but, still, he looked sharper and more confident than he has done since returning from a six-week hamstring lay-off.

There has been a lot of discussion about Van Dijk’s form this season, with some critics saying his best days are in the past. But the 31-year-old believes his determination to keep putting himself on the pitch, at a time when Liverpool’s form was poor, backfired.

Van Dijk played 51 of Liverpool’s 63 games in all competitions as they pursued the quadruple. Since returning in August 2021 from the cruciate ligament damage that forced him to miss 10 months, only 15 players have played more minutes in Europe’s top five leagues than the Dutchman.

‘Coming back from the knee injury, I played all the Premier League games, I think, because everybody wants to be out there – I want to be out there,’ said Van Dijk. ‘That's what I'm working hard for. What caught up is that I played too many games at a time.

‘When it's game day I want to play. I'll do everything possible to play. But I could have also thought before the World Cup: “Let's rest a little bit in order to be ready”. But I didn't because I want to play and I want to be influential for this football club because I love this club.

‘I work each and every day to be successful for this club. But it caught up with me unfortunately, my body, I'm not a robot, and I think going into the World Cup, having the World Cup, and then doing nothing for a week and coming back it was maybe not the right decision.’

Van Dijk played every minute of The Netherlands’ five World Cup fixtures in Qatar; he had a short break after they were eliminated by Argentina in the quarter-finals and returned to training before he damaged his hamstring in a 3-1 defeat at Brentford on January 2.

‘At the end of the day these things happen,’ said Van Dijk. ‘They could have not happened and (perhaps) I would still be playing. I would say that everything that happened, happened for a reason. This six weeks was a good chance for me to reflect.

‘But also it let my knee settle a little bit and get ready for the rest of the season. It was a tough six weeks to watch because you want to help the team and especially with a hamstring injury you have to be very patient. Patience is not in my vocabulary, it's not in my system, but I had to.’

The fact he raised the point about allowing his knee to settle will have led some anxiety that there have been long-term ramifications following the foul by Jordan Pickford in the October 2020 Merseyside Derby but Van Dijk provided a clarification.

‘If you let your knee and your body settle you get more out of it,’ said Van Dijk. ‘After every game you have to make sure you are on top of it, do the right stuff. That's everyone who had a knee injury.

‘We can all go back 10 or 15 years ago and it was quite difficult to be playing at the highest level for players who had done this injury which is why I am very blessed to still be playing at the highest level and trying to get that same level everyone is expecting from me and I'm expecting from myself.’