Liverpool’s injury problems mount with Joel Matip ‘a doubt for Crystal Palace clash’
Liverpool’s injury problems get even worse with Joel Matip ‘a doubt for Crystal Palace clash after sitting out training with a groin issue’ – offering Joe Gomez a chance to reclaim his spot alongside Virgil van Dijk
- Joel Matip’s groin problem adds to the list of players on the physio table
- Defender could be ruled out of the Crystal Palace game on Monday evening
- The defender sat out of training on Friday as a precaution ahead of the weekend
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){ var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0]; s.src = src; prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev); }(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle–.js”, document, “script”));
<!– DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle–.css”);
<!–
Joel Matip sat out of Liverpool training on Friday ahead of the visit of Crystal Palace to Anfield on Monday night, it has been reported.
The defender, who was influential last season as Liverpool reached three cup finals and finished a point behind Manchester City in the Premier League, is reportedly suffering from a groin problem.
The injury, reported by The Telegraph, adds to Jurgen Klopp‘s early season woe with a number of his stars already facing weeks on the sideline.
Joel Matip is potentially facing up to a period on the sideline after missing training on Friday
Should Matip be ruled out for a period of time, he will join fellow first team regulars Thiago, Ibrahima Konate, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota in the treatment room.
Kostas Tsimikas, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and new full-back Calvin Ramsey are all also injured as is back up goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
The injuries issues have arrived at a difficult time for Liverpool with the club hoping to hit the ground running in the early weeks of the season to ensure can put behind the difficult end to last term when they lost the Premier League title and the Champions League final within a week.
Matip’s injury could be good news, however, for Joe Gomez who is plotting a route back into the Liverpool first team after a difficult two years or so.
Matip sat out of training on Friday as Liverpool sought to confirm the extent of his groin problem
Having made his return to the Liverpool starting XI after 468 days in February, Gomez found starts hard to come by as Klopp favoured Konate or Matip to partner Virgil van Dijk.
However, with both of potentially sidelined now could be the chance for Gomez to stake his claim to the long-term spot of Van Dijk’s partner.
The opportunity could also grant Gomez the chance to break into the England squad months out from the winter World Cup.
Gareth Southgate is facing something of a crisis at centre back with Harry Maguire chronically out of form, Ben White having been deployed to right-back at Arsenal and Tyrone Mings having seen the captaincy at Aston Villa withdrawn.
The injury could provide Joe Gomez with an opportunity to get some regular starts under his belt
Speaking regarding Liverpool’s injury issues at his press conference earlier on Friday, Klopp said it was a concern but that, at present, they did not plan to dip into the market for replacements.
‘I am happy with the strength, size and quality of my squad. We have injuries, that’s how it is. Now it is the question how long the players will be out and there are different solutions for it,’ he said.
‘One of them – and there are plenty – is the transfer market but the transfer market only makes sense if you can bring in the right player, the right player not a player. It is easy to bring a player in but that doesn’t help even for a week for some players.’
Liverpool will be looking to put their indifferent start to the season behind them when they return to Anfield for the first competitive fixture since agonisingly missing out on the title on the final day.
Klopp will be hoping for his team to start faster against Crystal Palace, with the German admitting that he was not happy with their first half display away at Fulham.
