Ahead of tomorrow night’s EFL Cup semifinal clash against Fulham, Liverpool Asst. Manager Pep Lijnders provided updates on the statuses of injured Liverpool defenders Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas.
Tuesday saw the Reds injury crisis in the back line take another turn for the worse. Alexander-Arnold is now set to spend a few weeks on the sideline, having suffered ligament damage in his knee.
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“Trent hyperextended his knee during the last game,” Lijnders said to the club’s official website.
“So he has a little tear in the lateral ligament of his knee and he will need time to recover.
“He had a scan and he will be out for a few weeks, so let’s see after that. He will get some rest and then hopefully he can come back to where he was.
“This guy was decisive in all the games and was the one who created constantly for us from deep and gave the team a high level of flexibility. We will really miss him.”
Meanwhile Andy Robertson continues recovering from shoulder surgery, needing the procedure to repair the injury that he suffered while with Scotland during an international period this fall. So this means that Liverpool will now be without their first choice at both left back and right back for a few weeks.
“Robbo [Robertson], he’s almost at the three-month mark, so he will get checked by the surgeon,” Lijnders said.
“And if he does that scan and we see everything [so] that we can really progress him, he will go to Dubai for a week to do proper volume sessions, proper sessions, so that will be good for him.
“Then we see the three-month-mark scan and then we can see how quick he can go into contact again.”
Elsewhere Tsimikas is another long-term injury absentee, having suffered a shattered collarbone.
“Same for Kostas. Kostas is progressing really well, really quick,” Lijnders.
“So hopefully both of them — Robbo and Kostas — will be back at the end of this month to train with the team.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for the International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the website on Twitter.