Despite a mounting injury list, which includes several key players, Liverpool FC remain top of the table entering the next weekend fixture, a visit to Brentford FC. Let’s start with goalkeeper Alisson, who missed the 3-1 victory over Burnley, due to an outbreak of the flu.
“Ali only left the camp this morning,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. “[He] felt unwell, couldn’t sleep or eat really, so that’s not helpful.”
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There is hope that he could be back in action this Saturday, and the same goes for Mo Salah, who injured his hamstring at AFCON a couple weeks ago.
Right direction,” said Klopp.
“We hope, but we don’t know, we hope that he can be [in] parts of training next week. But we have to see, he is going through all the phases now and it’s positive. It’s either next week or the week after.”
Put the Egyptian Pharaoh in the “maybe” category. Meanwhile Trent Alexander-Arnold had to leave the Burnley clash early, due to re-aggravating his knee injury. However, this time it is not thought to be serious, so he shouldn’t be missing for too long.
We won’t make any more jokes about Thiago Alcantara always being injured, because he just got injured AGAIN! during his very first minutes of the season.
While Klopp said the situation is “not cool,” he also said that he Thiago should be able to play again at some point this season.
“It’s a muscle issue, we don’t know the extent yet,” the Liverpool boss explained.
“We have to wait there a little bit, but it’s not cool, of course. It was really not good news for him, for us, for everybody.”
Then you have midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, who suffered a re-aggravation of his hamstring injury.
“He didn’t feel a great issue but when you see then the pictures you just have to take him out and now we are fighting for days,” revealed Klopp last week. “Is it Brentford, is it the [Carabao Cup] final or is it after the final? I don’t know in the moment.”
Elsewhere Ibrahima Konate is suspended for this match, due to the two yellow cards while Joel Matip is done for the season with an ACL injury.
And finally, Joe Gomez and Ryan Gravenberch joined Alisson in being stricken with the flu, but there is hope the two could be back in action this weekend.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Twitter.