Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain limped off during Liverpool’s FIFA Club World Cup final against Flamengo, and boss Jurgen Klopp has now offered up some information on the Reds star.
“The ankle is what we probably expected. One of the ligaments on the outside is damaged and we have to see how quickly we can fix that. It can take a while or it can be quicker, we will see,” he’s quoted as saying by the Mirror.
The German isn’t too sure on exactly how long the midfielder will be out for, but he did put a rather vague timeline on it in the same press conference.
As quoted by Dave Maddock, Klopp said that Ox will not play again “this year” – now the boss’ English is very good, and will be better than my German will ever be, but I don’t think he’s meaning to confuse us here by suggesting he’s out for the season.
Klopp says on Oxlade Chamberlain, it's an ankle ligament injury – doesn't know how long he will be out, but says: "no chance of this year that Oxlade can play." #LFC
— David Maddock (@MaddockMirror) December 24, 2019
I think he literally means year, and is just ruling him out of our game against Leicester City, but Ox has suffered from bad injuries in the past and it wouldn’t be the biggest shock ever to hear he’s out for a lengthy period of time.
He did seem in high spirits following the celebrations in Qatar, but I suppose he wouldn’t know of the extent of the injury and it doesn’t seem like it’d be in his nature to dampen the mood.
Whatever the case – stay strong, Ox!