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Liverpool are paying a heavy price for their pursuit of four trophies this season, with the Reds having suffered a plethora of injuries in recent weeks and months. Indeed, Jurgen Klopp had to put his faith in Academy graduates during the stunning Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.
Of course, the kids came up trumps, helping the Reds claim a famous 1-0 win at Wembley despite being shorn of so many regular squad members and certain starters. But one can be sure that Klopp wants all of his key men back for the business end of the season, with Liverpool presently top of the Premier League, through to face Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-finals, and arguably already through to the last eight of the Europa League.
So, which players are set to imminently return to the fold? And who might not play again this season? GOAL breaks down Liverpool’s lengthy injury list below…
Ibrahima Konate
The last thing Liverpool needed ahead of Sunday’s massive Premier League showdown with Manchester City was another injury, so the sight of Ibrahima Konate coming off just five minutes into the second half of Thursday’s Europa League win over Sparta Prague sent chills down the spines of Reds fans.
Klopp insisted it was just a precautionary measure but, as it stands, the centre-back’s availability for this weekend’s top-of-the-table clash at Anfield remains in doubt.
“Ibou said when he passed me in that moment [on the sideline], ‘I thought if I did another sprint, then it could be bad.’ So he said he should be fine,” Klopp told reporters after the game. “But we don’t know.”
Joe Gomez
Joe Gomez was brought off even earlier than Konate in Prague, with the versatile defender withdrawn during the interval.
His non-appearance for the second half also sparked fears of another injury but Klopp said immediately after the 5-1 win, “Joey is fine. We took him off because he has played a lot of games, so that was more rotation, precaution.”
Ryan Gravenberch
The Netherlands international was taken out of the League Cup final by a dreadful challenge from Chelsea midfield Moises Caicedo that inexplicably went unpunished, which just added insult to injury. It was a terribly cruel blow for a player who has struggled for consistency this season but was starting his third game in a row in all competitions.
Klopp confirmed Gravenberch’s ankle ligament damage at a press conference two days later, ruling the versatile midfielder out of at least Liverpool’s next two games. However, he also missed the trip to Prague and is not expected to make the Man City match either.
On the plus side, Klopp did say that the Dutchman’s injury “could have been much worse”, meaning Gravenberch shouldn’t be out for too much longer.
Curtis Jones
If it weren’t for bad luck, the Scouse midfielder would have no luck at all. Jones has long been held back by injuries but this season’s issues have proven particularly painful as they’ve interrupted his best run of form in a Liverpool shirt.
The 23-year-old suffered his latest setback (an ankle sprain) during the win at Brentford on February 17 and Reds assistant coach Pep Lijnders says Jones will be out until “around the March international break”.
Stefan Bajcetic
Bajcetic was one of the few bright lights of an otherwise dark 2022-23 season before his campaign was cut short by an adductor problem. The Spanish teenager took far longer than expected to get back to full fitness and then, when he did, he was sidelined by injury again related to growing pains, meaning the No.6 has still only made two appearances this term – both of which came at right-back.
The hope remains, though, that he will be in a position to return to action this month. “He’s obviously gaining fitness now,” Klopp said on Tuesday. “He didn’t get a green light yet for us for the team training. But he’s pain-free, completely pain-free, which is obviously the most important thing. All checks we made, like scans again, bone looks good, that’s all fine and he’s just doing the stuff he’s doing.”
Alisson Becker
February did not start well at all for Alisson, who gifted Arsenal victory in a huge Premier League clash at the Emirates before then suffering a muscular problem in training that will keep him out of action until after the international break, meaning Liverpool will be without their first-choice goalkeeper for the crunch league clash with City, as well as the FA Cup clash with United.
Still, at least Liverpool can continue to call upon Carabao Cup hero Caoimhin Kelleher – or “the best No.2 goalkeeper in the world”, as Klopp calls the Irishman.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Klopp was upset by suggestions that Liverpool had “forced” Alexander-Arnold to return to action before he was fully recovered from the knee injury he suffered in the FA Cup win over Arsenal in January. However, such uncomfortable questions were inevitable after the right-back suffered discomfort in the “same area” during his comeback against Burnley.
Klopp had insisted at the time that it was “nothing really bad” but Alexander-Arnold is still in the treatment room and won’t be available for selection again until after this month’s international break. Liverpool are lucky, then, that Conor Bradley has proven such an able deputy!
Diogo Jota
To say that the Portuguese forward’s knee injury against Brentford came as a big blow to Liverpool would be a massive understatement. Jota is Klopp’s most lethal finisher and was in sensational form at the time.
The club’s medical team reportedly believe that the 27-year-old should be able to play some part in the tail end of the season but that’s far from certain. All that we know for sure is that his absence will be keenly felt, given he’d already chipped in with 14 goals and four assists in all competitions before his latest injury.
Ben Doak
After impressing during pre-season and featuring off the bench in the opening-weekend draw at Chelsea, the skilful Scottish winger started against both LASK and Leicester in September. Unfortunately, he picked up a muscular injury while on international duty with Scotland Under-21s and that “cost him a bit of rhythm”, as Klopp put it, but further first-team appearances followed against Toulouse and Union SG.
However, Doak then suffered a serious knee injury while representing the Reds’ Under-21s that means he might not play again this season. “He is young, he is a fit guy, he is a positive guy so, for sure, he will come back stronger,” assistant coach Pep Lijnders told reporters. “He can take his time because we will wait for him.”
The past year has been nothing short of a nightmare for the Spanish midfielder, who, after finally recovering from a serious hip injury, made his first senior appearance since April 2023 in the Premier League loss at Arsenal on February 4 – only to be immediately laid low by a muscular problem.
What’s seriously concerning is that Klopp isn’t even sure if Thiago will play again this season, which would be awful for the 32-year-old, given his contract expires this summer.
“There’s no timescale,” Klopp said. “There are a couple of things [that] he has to do now from a medical point of view and I don’t know if that will then mean that he can play again [this season]. It’s not a short-term thing. It’s not that he might be in training in two weeks or stuff like this, so that’s why I’m not 100 per cent. I cannot say more about it, to be honest.”
Joel Matip
What a terribly cruel way for the Cameroonian’s time at Liverpool to come to an end, with Matip suffering a season-ending ACL injury in December that means he’s almost certainly played his last game for the club, with his contract is up this summer. Klopp has argued that Matip deserves a new deal but added “it’s not my decision. I cannot sign the papers.”
Whatever happens, Matip will forever be regarded as a cult hero at Anfield and the free transfer from Schalke in 2016 will definitely go down as one of Klopp’s best-ever signings.
