It’s looking more likely that Liverpool will have to play and even start some of the youngsters when they take on first place Leicester City on Sunday.
Team Captain Jordan Henderson is the latest to suffer an injury or ailment, coming off at halftime, in the UEFA Nations League loss to Belgium yesterday. England manager Gareth Southgate told reporters that he wasn’t sure if it was a hamstring issue or not.
“Jordan had a bit of tightness at half-time and felt he couldn’t carry on,” Southgate said.
The midfielder will now be assessed by Liverpool team physios as he returns to the club for the rest of international break. The injury comes at the worst possible time, given all the other key and star players who are also unavailable.
Winger Mo Salah will miss out on the weekend fixture, having tested positive twice for coronavirus this past week.
Last week also saw Joe Gomez suffer a knee injury, and then undergo surgery in order to repair it. If he returns to action this season, it won’t be until near the end of the term. Meanwhile Virgil van Dijk is most likely done for the remainder of the campaign.
Elsewhere Trent Alexander-Arnold also withdrew from the England squad due to injury while Andy Robertson is a doubt with a hamstring problem. In other words, the whole back line is decimated, as the defense is in total crisis, on a team that has plenty of additional injuries in all position groups.
Henderson isn’t the only midfielder who could miss out. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thiago Alcantara are out long term with knee injuries.
No wonder manager Jurgen Klopp has been so ultra-hyper secretive with injury news this season- he’s got to try something in order to overcompensate for this injury riddled squad.
Klopp will have to get creative with his lineup this weekend, and that’s too bad for them, considering what a massive fixture this is.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.