Report: Matt Miazga likely to miss out on Feyenoord game for Vitesse

A mid-week report from De Gelderlander confirms the injury that forced Matt Miazga out of Vitesse's game against Excelsior on April 15 will very likely keep him out of the team's match against Feyenoord on April 22. Per reporter Lex Lammers, Miazga has been training separately from the first team squad in recent days, and is regarded as "insufficiently recovered" from the hamstring issue that saw him leave the field during the first half of Vitesse's last outing.

Miazga's absence is expected to open a spot in the starting lineup for Alexander Buttner, recently returned to Vitesse after disappointing stints at Manchester United and Dynamo Moscow. Buttner should start at left-back, with Arnold Kruiswijk shifting across to play center-back.

The Feyenoord game is a big one with regard to the Eredivisie title race. One point separates table-topping Feyenoord from Ajax, and the Amsterdam club plays PSV - six points back from Ajax in third - on the same day the league-leader heads to Vitesse. The race will surely go down to the final day,

But the game doesn't carry great significance for Vitesse. On April 30, it will play AZ in the Dutch Cup final: that is the match the team most wants to win between now and the end of the season. It might yet stumble out of the top seven in the league if it fails to pick another point in its remaining three games, but that would surely be forgiven if the team could clinch the first major trophy in its history (which stretches back to 1892).

Vitesse head coach Henk Fraser played for Feyenoord for about a decade, and it has been suggested he might be happy to help his former club on its way to the league title. Fraser has rejected those rumors, as one might expect. But his team on April 23 will be depleted both at the back (with Miazga and senior center-back Maikel van der Werff both out) and up front, since top-scorer Ricky van Wolfswinkel is suspended for the Feyenoord game.

But it is no secret Vitesse's priority is the Cup. Miazga's work this week was surely focused on getting back to fitness in time for the big game on April 30. Van der Werff is considered a long shot to be fit for the Cup final, and even if he were to be ready to play, he has been injured since mid-February and Miazga has proved a capable deputy in his absence.

If he can get back to fitness in time, Miazga should be a starter for Vitesse on April 30. But he'll watch what happens against Feyenoord on April 23 from the stands.