Injuries have been a running theme throughout the season for Liverpool, and one Reds player incurred a problem during the futile win over Atalanta last week.
The Daily Mail’s Lewis Steele took to social media to reveal that Virgil van Dijk dislocated his finger at the Gewiss Stadium four days ago and played through the pain barrier that night and against Fulham yesterday.
Thankfully, the journalist moved quickly to allay any fears that LFC fans may have had over the injury preventing our captain from featuring in the Premier League title run-in.
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The reporter posted on X this lunchtime: “Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has played through the last two games with an injury. But fear not, it’s only a dislocated finger. Suffered in first minute at Atalanta and apparently his finger was ‘pointing in wrong direction’. Could impact gym work but little else.”
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has played through the last two games with an injury. But fear not, it’s only a dislocated finger. Suffered in first minute at Atalanta and apparently his finger was “pointing in wrong direction”. Could impact gym work but little else. #LFC 🔴
— Lewis Steele (@LewisSteele_) April 22, 2024
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If Van Dijk was in any pain after dislocating his finger, it didn’t show during his performances against Atalanta and Fulham.
He won two duels and helped Liverpool to an ultimately irrelevant clean sheet in Italy last Thursday, and then made four clearances during the win at Craven Cottage three days later (Sofascore).
It’s a relief to know that he’ll be fine to feature in the derby away to Everton in midweek, a fixture in which he suffered the most serious injury of his career when he was taken out by a reckless assault from Jordan Pickford in October 2020.
It’s only over the last couple of weeks that Jurgen Klopp has once more enjoyed a nearly full squad from which to choose, following horrendous luck on that front during February in particular, and the last thing we need now is for any player to be ruled out of some (or all) of the five remaining matches in the title run-in.
It’ll clearly take more than ‘just’ a dislocated finger to stop Van Dijk from playing a captain’s part in trying to help Liverpool over the line to potential Premier League glory.