Van der Vaart ruled out

Netherlands midfielder Rafael van der Vaart has been ruled out of the World Cup after the experienced international picked up a calf injury at a training camp in Portugal, the Dutch football association KNVB confirmed on Wednesday.

Capped 109 times for his country, the 31-year-old Hamburg midfielder suffered the injury at a training camp for the Brazil tournament on Tuesday with KNVB saying he was not expected to recover in time.

Van der Vaart sat out training on Monday because of a fever before conducting a individual session on Tuesday while the rest of his team-mates were preparing to leave the Algarve at the end of the camp.

It was during this session that he was injured.