Liverpool have been dealt yet another injury blow with news Ibrahima Konate has been ruled out for up to three weeks with a hamstring problem.
And it could cause the Premier League giants to re-think their January transfer plans on deadline day.
The centre-back could miss four games for the Reds, including the Merseyside derby against Everton, and is in a race to be fit again for their Champions League showdown with Real Madrid.
It’s more bad news for Jurgen Klopp, whose squad has been ravaged by injury problems this season, leaving him without a first-choice XI for the majority of the campaign.
Liverpool are particularly short at the back, with Virgil van Dijk also on the sidelines with a similar injury.
The Dutchman is not expected to return for another two weeks, leaving Klopp very short of top-class options ahead of a run of games against Wolves, Everton and Newcastle in the Premier League as the Reds look to rise from their current position of ninth in the table.
There are also doubts over whether Konate will be ready for the first-leg of Liverpool’s Champions League last-16 tie against Real Madrid, with the holders due to visit Anfield on February 21 in a rematch of last season’s final.
The news will could scupper any potential deadline day exit for Nat Phillips, who is set to get yet another recall to the Liverpool first-team as injury cover.
The Merseysiders have already recalled 21-year-old Rhys Williams from a loan spell with Championship side Blackpool to cover the possibility of Phillips leaving in this window, but now it appears both may get game time in Reds shirts once again.
Phillips has made just five appearances this season, with Williams making 17 appearances for the Tangerines before his return to Anfield.
Liverpool had no intention of pushing Phillips out of the door before the transfer deadline, but there was a belief he could move on with a number of clubs interested in a player who Liverpool rated at £15million in the summer.
Now, though, Konate’s injury makes his late January exit highly unlikely, with Joe Gomez and Joel Matip – themselves injury prone – as Klopp’s only two fit senior centre-backs.
Konate has already missed ten games for Liverpool this season, having been sidelined with a knee injury earlier in the campaign, and his fitness woes are now set to continue.
SOURCE: talksport.com
