Alisson Becker has been ruled out of the impending tie with Brighton this evening “due to illness”, as reported by Liverpoolfc.com.
Caoimhin Kelleher has been given the nod to take the Brazilian’s place between the sticks; the Irishman’s first Premier League start for the Reds since the 4-0 thrashing of Wolves in December.
The illness is not thought to be COVID-19 related, but it will no doubt come as a blow to a Liverpool side that has recently lost Sadio Mane, Fabinho and Joel Matip to injury.
Alisson absent with illness not injury. Not CO-Vid but woke up this morning not feeling well.
— Matt Critchley (@MattCritchley1) February 3, 2021
Fortunately, Kelleher has proved to be a more than compelling understudy to the No.1, providing several confident performances when called upon during Alisson’s prior absences.
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If it’s a minor illness, we’d expect to see the former Roma stopper back in action for Jurgen Klopp’s Reds by the weekend, for a pivotal clash with Manchester City.
Realistically speaking, as admirable as the Academy graduate has been, as a stand-in for the 28-year-old, we’ll need our best XI (at least those within who can be reasonably expected to be available) ready for selection.
Though we don’t doubt that our No.62 will be champing at the bit to get his second league start for us tonight, it’ll be a massive help having Jordan Henderson’s leadership to directly benefit from, with the skipper being kept in the back four once more.