Virgil van Dijk backs Joe Gomez after boos from England fans

Joe Gomez was shockingly booed by England fans when he came on as a substitute during their 7-0 win against Montenegro. The defender was left devastated by the actions of the fans and was spoken to by Gareth Southgate after the match.

Raheem Sterling and Gomez had been involved in a training ground incident earlier in the week and reportedly had to be pulled apart. The incident led to the Manchester City star sitting out of the win against Montenegro and he was spotted in the stands during the game.

Virgil van Dijk has now come out in defence of his club teammate, stating that it was disappointing to see what happened at Wembley. The Liverpool defender was quoted by Sky Sports News saying:

"It's disappointing to see. I want to say as well it's been dealt with. I think everyone should stop talking about it because it's just a thing that happened. They all sorted it out. Everyone needs to move on, leave Joe especially alone. But yes, it was disappointing to see."

England face Kosovo on Sunday but will be without the services of Gomez. The young Liverpool defender reportedly picked up an injury in training after a tackle from Kieran Trippier. Gomez's Liverpool teammate, Jordan Henderson, will also miss the game with a viral infection.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram