James Pearce has hinted that Liverpool could soon welcome back one of their numerous injured players, with a claim that Reds fans would love to see materialising.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have had to manage without Andy Robertson for almost three months, with the Scotland captain undergoing surgery on a dislocated shoulder in October (Liverpool Echo), and that blow was compounded by fellow left-back Kostas Tsimikas suffering a broken collarbone just before Christmas.
When speaking to the press on Tuesday, Pep Lijnders suggested that the 29-year-old could ‘hopefully’ be back training with the squad by the end of this month, although that step on the road to recovery may actually come even sooner.
Speaking on the Walk On Podcast, Pearce said: “I was told that Robertson is probably just less than a fortnight away from full training again, so he could be back by the end of January, and that frees up Joe Gomez to play centrally as well.”
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It had seemed as if we wouldn’t see Robertson involved on a matchday until February, so Pearce’s claim that the Scottish left-back could return before the end of this month is very promising.
Liverpool will likely have to negotiate the Carabao Cup semi-final against Fulham – along with a Premier League trip to Bournemouth and an FA Cup fourth round tie – without the 29-year-old, but it’d be tremendous to have him back for Chelsea’s visit to Anfield on 31 January.
As the journalist pointed out, the return of our number 26 would enable Gomez to revert to centre-back or possibly shift to the right flank in the absence of Trent Alexander-Arnold, although Klopp might be keen not to impede any progress made by Conor Bradley in the meantime.
The one silver lining to so many Reds players being currently injured is that this is one of the quietest months in our season fixture-wise, and having an experienced, proven campaigner like Robertson back for the springtime charge could be vital for LFC – all the more so if we go deep into the FA Cup and Europa League, along with being in the thick of a Premier League title challenge.
#Ep98 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️