A two-time Premier League winner has offered hope that Liverpool will have one currently injured player back for the visit of Manchester United to Anfield later this month.
When the Reds faced the other top-flight club from that city at the Etihad Stadium in late November, Alisson Becker went down with a suspected hamstring problem, which has seen Caoimhin Kelleher start our two subsequent games.
The Brazilian will definitely miss the upcoming trips to Sheffield United and Crystal Palace this week, but David Seaman’s projection would suggest that the 31-year-old might be fit enough to face Erik ten Hag’s side on 17 December.
Speaking on the Seaman Says podcast, the former England goalkeeper – who won the Premier League with Arsenal in 1998 and 2002 – said: “Alisson, that’ll probably be three weeks if it’s just a hamstring, depending on how severe it is.”
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Alisson’s injury stemmed from the Man City game on 25 November, with a three-week gap between that game and Liverpool v United.
If Seaman’s assessment is accurate – and he’s well-placed to comment as a long-serving goalkeeper at a high level – the Brazilian could be touch-and-go to recover in time for the Red Devils’ visit to Anfield.
The normally reliable Kelleher endured a rare off-day against Fulham on Sunday, conceding two soft first-half goals and beaten three times altogether, so Kopites could be praying to have the first-choice stopper back for Sunday week.
Even right up until the couple of days before the United clash, we could be kept guessing as to whether or not Alisson will be fit enough to play.
While we still have every confidence that his Irish understudy is a fine goalkeeper despite yesterday’s showing, fingers crossed that our regular number one will be in the team when our fiercest historical rivals come to town.