Virgil van Dijk is 35, has not come off the pitch for a single Premier League minute this season, and will tip into the final six months of his Liverpool deal in January. He is also, by his own account, the most relaxed person in the entire conversation about his own future.
Speaking from the Netherlands camp, the centre-back told reporters he saw no reason to force the issue, in comments reported by the BBC.
“I’m not in any panic whatsoever. I want to keep playing and continue what I’m doing.”
He was unusually direct about the alternative. If an extension arrives, he stays. If it does not, he leaves.
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“If that will be extended, that’s the case. If not, then I will go somewhere else.”
No substitution since September 2023
Van Dijk’s current deal, a two-year extension he put his name to in April 2025, runs out next summer. No fresh talks have been opened. The stat behind his posture is unusually strong: as the Irish Examiner noted, he has not missed a Premier League minute for Liverpool since September 2023 apart from the penultimate 90 minutes of the 2024-25 season.
Since arriving from Southampton in 2018 he has made 389 appearances, 385 of them starts, the most by any Liverpool player in that span. Along the way he has lifted two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the FA Cup and two EFL Cups, and scored 36 goals from centre-back.
Every league minute under Iraola
Head coach Andoni Iraola, who replaced Arne Slot ahead of the 2026-27 season, has used Van Dijk in every league match since taking charge. The Dutchman has also started three of Liverpool’s four Champions League group games under him.
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Not everything is clean, though. Van Dijk acknowledged a niggle has been bothering him for the last couple of weeks, the Evening Standard reported, and it was enough to take him out of the Netherlands’ Nations League double-header against Greece and Germany. Liverpool confirmed the withdrawal on Monday. Iraola is expected to have him back for the Premier League meeting with Manchester United at Anfield on 22 November.
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