Liverpool confirm injury blow plus duo doubtful for Leicester City clash

Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp has confirmed Joe Gomez has suffered a set-back while Trent Alexander-Arnold and Georginio Wijnaldum remain doubt to face Leicester City next week.

Gomez has been on the sidelines since fracturing his leg during Liverpool’s win at Burnley on December 5th and the defender was initially expected to return to action at the start of February.

However, having already sat out Liverpool’s last 10 fixtures, the 21-year-old is yet to even return to light training and Klopp has now revealed that Gomez is still a number of weeks away from full fitness.

The Reds boss says the club had hoped Gomez would be further along in his recovery by this point but they’re going to have to reassess things in a couple of weeks before a time-frame can be put on his return to action.

Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com:

“We have to wait. Obviously it was really unlucky in that situation. The injury is not like Trent or Gini where you know ‘that’s the only thing’. It could have been like that, but then more and more we found out it’s a more serious thing.

“We have to wait, for sure, a couple of weeks. We will see, it is difficult to judge in the moment.

“We thought three weeks ago he would be closer and then we had to make another diagnosis in which we saw that it didn’t work out so far as we wanted, that’s why he is still not in training or running on the pitch.”

Klopp also provided an update on the fitness of Alexander-Arnold and the full-back is making good progress in his recovery from a knee ligament injury but he remains a doubt for Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Leicester on Wednesday night.

The 20-year-old sustained the injury during Liverpool’s win over Brighton on January 12 and was forced to miss the win over Crystal Palace but it remains to be seen whether Alexander-Arnold will be able to recover in time to face the Foxes.

Wijnaldum also suffered a knee injury at the Amex Stadium and sat out the win over Palace last weekend but the midfielder will be assessed at Melwood over the coming days to see whether he’ll be fit to return in midweek.

Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com:

“He [Alexander-Arnold] is better, much better, but we have to see. It needs to be stable – and in the moment it is stable and it’s about the pain.

“Everyone knows how desperate Trent is to play; he can ignore pretty much everything. That he played that game at Brighton was sensational, to be honest. It’s unbelievable. The same for Gini, who got a little injury early and it was very painful. Adrenaline is obviously really hard stuff and gives you the opportunity to grow a bit in the game, so they did.

“It will not be long [for Trent], but is he ready for Leicester? I don’t know, we will find out. Then it’s West Ham and then Bournemouth. After that he will be 100 per cent [back] but until then, we have to see.”

“Gini is good, better. The plan is that he will have one session today and then we have to see how he reacts on that. Hopefully we can build from that point.”

Liverpool welcome Leicester to Anfield on Wednesday sitting four points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table so Klopp will be hoping Alexander-Arnold and Wijnaldum are passed fit as they look to at least maintain their advantage with a win over the Foxes.