Despite there being some positive injury news of late, Liverpool are still set to travel to Italy for our opening Champions League group stage match – without eight injured players.
These are: Caoimhin Kelleher, Ibou Konate, Calvin Ramsay, Naby Keita, Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Curtis Jones and Fabio Carvalho, a number of whom the manager discussed in his pre-match presser (as relayed on Twitter by Paul Gorst).
A quartet of injury updates from Jurgen Klopp in his pre-Napoli press conference.
Thiago – Cleared to return
Henderson – Out until after international break
Jones – Back on the shelf
Carvalho – Hope for Wolves comebackAll the latest. https://t.co/MrFb7WvwKL
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) September 6, 2022
If there were any further reasonings for Jurgen Klopp to have strengthened his midfield options this summer, then still seeing five players who can play in the middle being out injured – is a glaring example.
It really has been a season of injuries so far and we can all only hope this doesn’t become the story of the campaign as a whole, with worries already mounting that we could quickly find ourselves out of the title race – before it has even begun.
We are still so early in the campaign but with three of the stricken players picking up fitness issues in our last two matches, it really feels like one step forward and two steps back at the moment.
Given the decision to exclude our No.8 and No.15 from the group stage squads for Europe, it shows that their issues are quite severe.
The rest will all hopefully be preparing for a comeback sooner rather than later, with the international break seeming to provide a welcome break for the doctors at the club.
Fingers crossed these issues subside as the season continues and that we don’t see this list get any bigger than the 10 absent players we had a couple of weeks back.
#Ep58 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Rating Liverpool’s UCL group, making a new signing… & more!