Liverpool are still being hurt by our current injury issues and it seems that this won’t be slowing down when it comes to Ibou Konate and Conor Bradley.
Speaking with the press before our game with Tottenham, Arne Slot provided a fitness update on the pair: “These are the two that are still ‘in the red’, so they don’t train with us at the moment. They are on their way back but they don’t train with the team yet.”
Asked for a timeline of their return, the Dutchman added: “That is, what I’ve said before, quite difficult. We thought, I thought, that [Diogo] Jota would have been back a bit earlier already and sometimes the end stage of rehab takes a bit longer.
“Sometimes they join [training] and then they are like, ‘I’m not completely ready to start yet.’ So, let’s wait and see but we have very good rehab personnel over here and they’ve done some good work already with Alisson [Becker] and a few others.
“The main thing is that if they come back, they are ready to come back and we must not focus on one, two or three days. It’s more important for the long term that they stay fit afterwards.
“Until now they have done really well and hopefully with Conor and Ibou the same thing happens.”
It always seems to be the way that one area of the pitch is hit worst at one time and now it’s our defence that’s struggling most.
Arne Slot is patching together his Liverpool defence
We saw against Southampton in the Carabao Cup that both Wataru Endo and Tyler Morton were asked to fulfill unfamiliar roles in our back line for the game.
That was of course driven by resting players like Virgil van Dijk and only handing half a game to Joe Gomez but it was testament to the issues currently at hand.
Fortunately it seems that Andy Robertson’s injury fueled red card will not hold him back any longer than the suspension he has already solved.
Add on the return of Kostas Tsimikas for the game at St. Mary’s, therefore our No.2 can now be seen as an option for right back should we experience any issues with Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Jarell Quansah is the cover in the centre but given the Frenchman posting his own fitness update, he may not be too far away from a return to team training.
Our head coach will know best as to how important the return of our No.5 will be and let’s hope we see both return to action very soon.
You can view Slot’s injury update on Konate and Bradley via Liverpool FC on YouTube:
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We do have a desperately small squad, we’ve not replaced Matip and failed to get Zubimendi in the summer, we are fine up front with options, but both midfield and defence are one high quality option short. Sadly, there aren’t going to be any suitable options in the Jan transfer window and even if there are FSG will low ball any offer and it will be end of Jan if we get anyone in, if at all. Sadly, it’s what will make winning any more than one trophy this season pretty much impossible, despite a wonderful opportunity to fill our boots.