Cody Gakpo is being supported by his Netherlands team-mates and coach Ronald Koeman after he and his partner lost their baby son during pregnancy.Gakpo’s partner Noa van der Bij posted about the loss on social media earlier this week, and Koeman told his press conference before their World Cup round-of-32 tie against Morocco there was “never a moment” when the Liverpool forward asked to go home from the tournament.His club and international captain Virgil van Dijk said he had “lots of respect” for how Gakpo and his family had dealt with the situation and that the forward was focused on Monday’s game in Monterrey, Mexico.“It was very sad news that we learned and that Cody and his family learned,” Koeman said. “We have done what was within our power in terms of support, as players, as staff. Of course, the first few days he had the freedom to go out to his family and be with them. He dealt with it very well, there was never a moment where he said ‘I want to go back, I want to be with the family’.
“So that was the way he took it and the way he approached it and that shows his maturity. I don’t think it’ll be a heavy weight on his performance. He deals with things with his family in his own way and it’s very powerful, it’s beautiful and we’ve left it there. We’ve been his support, he can count on us, on the other players and the players handled it in their way.”
