Jürgen Klopp has an embarrassment of riches in central defence. With Virgil van Dijk at the heart of the back line, he has enjoyed a solid understanding with each of his partners in the last 18 months. One of our most successful pairings was torn apart at the start of the season; the latest Joel Matip injury update has the defender missing our crunch clash with Leicester City.
The Cameroonian defender has been absent since the end of September, reappearing only once when he played against Manchester United at the end of October.
According to a report in The Express, the long limbed defender could be out for at least another fortnight. The article quotes Jürgen Klopp as saying of Matip:
“It was not like after four weeks or so that it was already as we wished, so we have to wait another two weeks I would think and then we will see. But then he will have been out for six weeks or so, if it is perfect, fine, but he might need to rebuild his physical things as well, which is not too cool, but it is nothing serious.”
What RTK has to say
It seems like forever that we’ve been without our lanky defender. This time last year Joel Matip was gearing up for his ascent to the title of Most Improved Defender in Europe.
The Cameroonian’s Liverpool career looked dead and buried before Joe Gomez had his leg broken against Burnley. Joel stepped up and never looked back.
Fingers crossed he is back to form when he is back to fitness; though he won’t be expecting to just walk back into the side.
In the meantime, Dejan Lovren has filled in admirably and should be enough to keep The Foxes at bay in the key title clash on Boxing Day.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
