Liverpool Injury News: Rodgers Confirms Fresh Injury Blow + Sturridge Latest

Liverpool will be looking to make it two wins from two in the Champions League when they take on FC Basel in Switzerland on Wednesday night.

Ahead of the game, Brendan Rodgers has been speaking at his pre-match press conference this evening where he gave Liverpoolfc.com a team news and injury update and he revealed some bad news on Mamadou Sakho.

As we reported earlier, the French international failed to make the trip to Switzerland today and many thought he had been left out for disciplinary reasons after he stormed out of Anfield on Saturday when he was left out of the team.

However, Rodgers has confirmed that Sakho has in fact been sidelined by a thigh injury which he picked up in training this week. The 24-year-old has had a scan and is expected to be out for up to three weeks.

Rodgers also confirmed that striker Daniel Sturridge is still not available as he continues to recover from a thigh injury that’s kept him out for the last four weeks.

However, the Liverpool boss is confident he’ll have the majority of his injured players, including the likes of Glen Johnson and Joe Allen, back in contention after the upcoming international break.

The Northern Irishman told the clubs website:

“It’s pretty much the same as we were at the weekend apart from that Mamadou Sakho is not here – he has a slight strain, which may have him out for a few weeks.

“His injury came in a training session. It’s unfortunate – he’s just felt a pain in his thigh. He went and had a scan on it which showed he’s got a slight tear in there, which will be probably two to three weeks.”

“Apart from that [Sakho], the squad is pretty much the same [as against Everton],” he said. “Daniel Sturridge isn’t quite available and the others that have been out are still out.

“It doesn’t leave us short, we’re working with what we’ve got. We always felt after this next international break we should have everyone back and the group will be up to full strength again.

“We’ve got some young players who’ve travelled with us, so it’s a good experience for them.”

With Sakho out injured, Martin Skrtel is expected to continue his partnership alongside Dejan Lovren at the back while Mario Balotelli will once again start up front in Sturridge’s absence.

Liverpool go into their second Champions League group game after a 2-1 win over Ludogorets at Anfield two weeks ago, so the Merseysiders will be in excellent shape if they are able to bring home another three points tomorrow.