Virgil van Dijk announced his return to Southampton’s first-team training with a superb goal this week.
The Dutch defender has been welcomed back into the fold after he was refused a move to Liverpool during the summer transfer window.
Van Dijk opted to go public in his criticism of Southampton’s decision to keep him against his wishes and was subsequently frozen out of the first team by new manager Mauricio Pellegrino.
But the 26-year-old is back training and impressed his team-mates with a sublime strike in a shooting drill.
Southampton host Watford on Saturday but the game may come too soon for Van Dijk, who is lacking match fitness and has not played a competitive game since January.
‘Now he is training with the team again,’ said Pellegrino.
‘It’s good news, because now everything is normal.
‘I think, obviously, Virgil is coming back from a long period of time and he needs to train and to play games to settle back again, but it’s good news for us.’
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