Manchester United's goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has turned down an offer to come out of international retirement for a second time to help Holland qualify for next year's World Cup. Holland's coach, Bert van Marwijk, said he had called Van der Sar, 38, "against my better judgment" to ask him to play because of an injury and form crisis that has hit the three keepers in his squad. "I knew beforehand what the answer would be, but I called him anyway," Van Marwijk added.

Van der Sar, the most capped Dutch footballer of all time with 130 appearances, retired from international football after Euro 2008. However, he agreed to make a one-off comeback last October for qualifiers against Iceland and Norway to cover for injuries. The Netherlands won both matches and he kept two clean sheets.

Van Marwijk tried to persuade Van der Sar to come back again for home qualifiers against Scotland on 28 March and Macedonia on 1 April.

The squad's three keepers, Maarten Stekelenburg, Henk Timmer and Michel Vorm, "are all sick, injured or coming back from injury," he said.

Stekelenburg, who has recovered from injury but has not managed to regain his place in Ajax's first team, remains Van Marwijk's first choice. "Of all the keepers at the moment, he has the most potential," said Van Marwijk, who names his squad for the Scotland and Macedonia qualifiers on Friday.

Van der Sar set an English league record this year after going 1,311 minutes without conceding a goal for United. The stretch started on 8 November after Arsenal's Samir Nasri beat him twice in a 2–1 victory and ended on 4 March, when his blunder gifted Newcastle's Peter Lovenkrands a goal in the ninth minute of United's 2–1 Premier League victory.