Robben looks ahead to another major tournament with the Dutch

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Injury-plagued Arjen Robben believes he could still play at another major tournament even after the Netherlands failed to qualify for next year’s European Championship in France.

“If I didn’t believe I would have stopped with the national team and that I haven’t done,” Robben told reporters on Monday as he joined up with the Dutch team for friendlies against Wales and Germany over the next week.

“I really want to keep playing even if the two games we are playing now make little sense. They are bizarre matches. Are we preparing for the Euros or the World Cup or even for play-offs? No, we are preparing now for matches only in September next year.”

The Dutch play in Cardiff on Friday and Hanover next Tuesday, and will take on England at Wembley in March, but their next competitive game at the start of the World Cup qualifiers is in Sweden on Sept. 6 2016.

Failure in the Euro 2016 qualifiers signified a huge dip in form for the Dutch, who had finished third less than 18 months ago at the World Cup in Brazil.

“Around these two matches we will do a lot of talking about how we can improve,” Robben added. “We got ourselves into a difficult situation. After a successful World Cup it was simply not good enough in the Euro qualifiers.”

(Reporting by Mark Gleeson; Editing by Clare Fallon)