The Liverpool defender has been questioned for his performances this season and accepts that he may have tried to do much after suffering a serious knee injury two seasons ago.

Van Dijk said: "Coming back from the knee injury, I played all the Premier League games, because I want to be out there. But what caught up (with me) is that I played too many games at a time.

"When it's game day I want to play, I'll do everything possible to play. Patience is not in my vocabulary, it's not in my system - I want to play and I want to be influential for this football club because I love this club, and I work each and every day to be successful for this club.

"But it caught up with me unfortunately, my body, I'm not a robot."

Van Dijk spent eight months on the sidelines after suffering the knee ligament issue and is grateful that he has been able to continue playing at the top level.

He said: "We can all go back and it was quite difficult to be playing at the highest level for players who had done this injury. Which is why I am very blessed to still be playing at the highest level and trying to get that same level everyone is expecting from me and I'm expecting from myself."

Van Dijk feels that he could have managed his body better after representing the Netherlands at the World Cup last year.

He said: "I could have also thought before the World Cup, 'Let's rest a little bit in order to be ready'. But I didn't.

"And I think going into the World Cup, having the World Cup, and then doing nothing for a week and coming back was maybe not the right decision."