Klopp confirms major injury blow as Liverpool star is ruled out of Man City clash

Jurgen Klopp has confirmed a major blow with the news that Trent Alexander-Arnold is set to miss Sunday’s Premier League clash with Manchester City due to an adductor injury.

Alexander-Arnold completed the full ninety minutes during Liverpool’s thrilling 3-3 draw with Brentford on Saturday but was forced to leave training early on Monday after feeling discomfort in his adductor area.

The 22-year-old didn’t make the trip to Portugal for Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Porto on Tuesday night where the Merseysiders ran out comfortable 5-1 winners thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah [2], Roberto Firmino [2] and Sadio Mane.

Liverpool had initially hoped Alexander-Arnold’s injury was nothing to worry about but Klopp confirmed ahead of the game at the Estadio do Dragao that the full-back’s issue was more serious than first thought.

The German coach is quoted as saying on Liverpoolfc.com:

“Yeah, unfortunately [it’s an injury]. It was shortly after training [on Monday], Trent went in a little bit earlier but it didn’t look serious. We did further assessment and in the end it was serious. So, he is out for today for sure, he didn’t travel with us.

“And it doesn’t look great for the City game as well. It’s a muscle thing. We thought he was just a bit tired from the [Brentford] game but it was more and now we have to deal with that.”

Klopp later expanded on the issue to reporters after the game and while he suggested the injury is only ‘little’, he all-but ruled Alexander-Arnold out of this weekend’s clash with Manchester City.

Klopp is quoted by the Liverpool Echo as saying:

“Trent was [supposed to play] on Saturday and then Tuesday. So the situation was the players who started on Saturday (against Brentford), which Trent obviously did, on Sunday they had no training, only recovery.

“On Monday, which is the only session we have together, we pretty much walk through the things. There’s no real intensity really in that session, but Trent felt in the middle of the session his adductor in that area.

“He has now a little injury. When you obviously have something for your muscle it makes it not likely [to play] on Sunday.

The Liverpool Echo says Alexander-Arnold ‘will miss’ the visit of City this weekend while he is also a doubt for England’s games against Andorra and Hungary during the upcoming international break.

Alexander-Arnold’s absence on Sunday will be a huge blow for Liverpool as he’s been a key player for the Reds in recent years and he’ll be sorely missed when the defending Premier League champions arrive at Anfield this weekend.

James Milner is expected to fill-in once again at right-back as Liverpool look to extend their lead over Man City at the top of the table to four points with a win on home soil.