Injury plague
The battle of the injured sides will commence this weekend as Liverpool face Leicester City. The Foxes have been without several of their key defensive players with Ricardo Pereira, Caglar Soyuncu and Timothy Castagne all having significant spells on the sidelines.
Meanwhile opponents Liverpool have been hit much harder. Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez have suffered long-term knee injuries in addition to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Fabinho and Thiago have been out through illness and injury. Jordan Henderson suffered a groin injury on England duty and will also likely miss the game against Leicester.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 17: (THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT )Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool collides with Everton’s goalkeeper Jordan Pickford during the Premier League match between Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park on October 17, 2020 in Liverpool, England. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson withdrew from their international call-ups with the former out for a number of weeks. Joel Matip and Alisson have also missed several weeks of the season prior to the break.
Coach Jurgen Klopp has been a key and loud voice in the call for a return to the 5 substitutions rule to allow sides to cope better with the heavy fixture regiment.
“It’s not an advantage, it’s a necessity. It happens in other countries, it was sold completely wrong and now you have this situation,” said the German coach regarding the ability to use five substitutes.
Salah positive
On top of the horrific injury scene at the club, Klopp will be without Mohamed Salah has tested positive for Covid-19 and will therefore remain in Egypt until he returns a negative test.
The second test is reportedly set to occur in up to 5 days time. Were he to test positive again, the Egyptian will almost certainly miss the midweek Champions League tie against Atalanta and the Premier League fixture versus Brighton.
Salah was videoed attending his brother’s wedding, not following social distancing guidelines or wearing a mask. Whether or not this is a contributing factor remains unknown.
Abou Elela, Egypt’s national team doctor, did not deny that the wedding was not the cause of his contraction of the virus. “I cannot deny. No one knows because unfortunately, we still don’t know everything about the virus. My answer is maybe yes, maybe no.”
Exclusive: Interviewed the Egypt team doctor about Mohamed Salah testing positive for coronavirus.
– has mild symptoms
– self-isolating for at least as week in Egypt
– also discusses the striker attending the wedding this weekhttps://t.co/UCXiqP34gY pic.twitter.com/UBMgEv3BKb— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) November 14, 2020
Arsenal’s Willian also took a trip to Dubai during the international break not having been called up to the Brazilian national squad. According to The Telegraph he will now need to test negative before being allowed to return to the UK.
