Rafa Benitez wants assurances over Ryan Babel

Jul 16 2008 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

RAFAEL BENITEZ will seek reassurances from Dutch officials after Ryan Babel’s Olympic call-up yesterday.

Liverpool’s 21-year-old was named in the Holland squad for the Beijing Olympics, meaning he could miss the first two games of the Premier League season.

But of more concern to Anfield manager Benitez is the forward being rushed back into competitive action after his recovery from the ankle ligament tear that ruled him out of Euro 2008. Benitez has already lost Brazilian Lucas and Argentinians Javier Mascherano, and – probably – Emiliano Insua to the Games next month.

And as Babel has battled back to fitness earlier than expected, it has allowed the Dutch to call him up to coach Foppe de Haan’s 18-man squad.

As part of their preparations for the Games, Holland will face Belgium on July 23 before flying to Hong Kong for the ING Cup.

The team will then move on to Tianjin in China, where they play their first Olympic match against Nigeria on August 7 before also facing Japan and the United States in Group B.

This schedule is galling for Benitez given the recovery programme Babel has begun at Melwood last week, but he cannot stop the player going under the competition rules.