Robin van Persie pulls out of Dutch squad for Germany friendly

Rotterdam: The Netherlands will face Germany in Wednesday's friendly international without in-form Robin van Persie after the Manchester United winger pulled out of the squad on Monday with a thigh complaint. Van Persie played for the full 90 minutes in United's 3-2 win at Aston Villa on Saturday, setting up Javier Hernandez's 87th minute winner with an inswinging free-kick.

The scorer of 31 goals in 71 internationals is likely to be replaced as the key frontman by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who plays in Germany for Schalke 04 and has himself scored 34 goals in 59 matches for the Dutch. Dutch coach Louis van Gaal will also be without Wesley Sneijder for the match at the Amsterdam Arena. Sneijder has still not recovered from a thigh injury and has not played for his club Inter Milan since the end of September.

Van Gaal called up Jordy Clasie, Ruben Schaken, Stefan de Vrij, Jeroen Zoet and Bas Dost on Monday. He has 23 men present for the friendly against the Germans who beat the Dutch 3-0 in a friendly a year ago and also proved too strong for them in the Euro 2012 finals, beating them 2-1 in the group phase in Kharkiv.

The scorer of 31 goals in 71 internationals is likely to be replaced as the key frontman by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

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