Many a Liverpool fan will have been looking forward to the return of electric left-winger Luis Diaz after it was reported the Colombian was due to make a return to the pitch during the club’s time in Dubai.
A fresh injury blow, now set to rule out the 25-year-old until March, has left them, not mention the player’s teammates (including Kostas Tsimikas) bitterly disappointed ahead of the Reds’ impending return to domestic action.
“It’s such bad luck for Luis and I feel very sad for him,” the Greek international told James Pearce at The Athletic.
“Thankfully, he’s very strong mentally and physically.
“I wish him a speedy recovery and every single one of us will be there for him along the way. We’ll be waiting for him.”
The Merseysiders are set to take on league rivals Manchester City in the Round of 16 of the Carabao Cup with the Sky Blues reportedly missing a host of top players for the encounter.
Our remaining options are from being abysmal, though there should be genuine concern over the state of the forward line should any further injuries occur given the lack of depth beyond Darwin Nunez, Bobby Firmino and Mo Salah.
On the plus side, it seems that Diogo Jota’s recovery efforts remain on track ahead of a potential return in February, which will be a significant boost to our hopes of attaining top four football come the end of the campaign.
In the meantime, we’ll be hoping that the warm-weather training camp has been the perfect mini-pre-season the club needed to get our priorities straight and the players ready for a tough second-half of the season.