Vivianne Miedema played 120 minutes for the Netherlands in the Euro 2022 quarter-finals, just days after recovering from COVID-19.

The 26-year-old returned to training on Wednesday, three days before the Netherlands took on France for a place in the Euro 2022 semi-finals.

She had tested positive for COVID-19 on July 14th, missing group stage games against Portugal and Switzerland.

Dutch manager Mark Parsons would have been relieved to put his top goalscorer back into the starting line-up, but it was clear Miedema was still returning to fitness during her side’s 1-0 loss to France.

She was given a FotMob rating of 5.1, the lowest among her teammates, and only managed a solitary off-target shot.

To make matters worse, Miedema was forced to play 120 minutes after the match went to extra-time. It was clear towards the end of the game that she was struggling, and looked she exhausted when the final whistle blew.

With Miedema’s performance attracting criticism, fans took to Twitter to defend the star striker.

“If your first thought is to blame Vivianne Miedema you’re clueless and football isn’t for you,” one social media user wrote.

“It was always going to be difficult against that French side, take into account she is also back from Covid, not up to speed at all as she has hardly trained and she was punctured.”

Another wrote: “Maybe leave the Miedema agenda tonight, let's not forget she's almost definitely still feeling the effects of Covid”.

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Others called out Parsons for leaving Miedema on the pitch for extra-time.

“Exactly who decided it was okay to play Miedema who just recovered from covid for the entire 120 minutes? like is the Dutch medical team ok?”

Another comment read: “120 minutes after coming back from Covid.. shouldn’t have happened.”

On her day, Miedema is one of the best talents in women’s football. The Arsenal striker is the Netherlands’ record goalscorer, with 94 goals in 112 games.

She made her international debut nine years ago and was a key part of the Dutch side that won Euro 2017.

At Tokyo 2020, Miedema broke the Olympic goal-scoring record by netting ten times in four matches.

She has just an impressive goalscoring record in the Women’s Super League. In fact, she is the league’s all-time top scorer with 74.

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