Ibrahima Konate has a major injury red flag. Liverpool have to take note as they supposedly eye up a move for the RB Leipzig defender.
Ibrahima Konate has a very worrying injury history – and that must concern Liverpool. That’s if the Reds truly want the player.
It sounds as if they do. Christian Falk of BILD claimed as much recently.
The New York Times’s Rory Smith then heavily hinted in that direction when talking on Guardian Football Weekly.
“I think Liverpool intend to sign a centre-back in the summer and I think that central defender is probably someone they will play against in the Champions League’s Last 16,” he said. “And I don’t think it’s going to be Dayot Upamecano.”
We can safely assume that’s Konate, then, given Liverpool face RB Leipzig in the Last 16.
But if that is the Reds’ plan, then there’s a major red flag here.
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Common theme
As you may have noticed, Liverpool have had injury problems at the back this season. Virgil van Dijk hasn’t played since October, Joe Gomez since November, and Joel Matip can’t put back-to-back games together.
Liverpool don’t actually have any other senior centre-halves and would probably like to sign one in the summer. (But not January. Definitely not January.)
But anyone they sign will need to be reliably fit. Matip certainly isn’t that, while he don’t know yet how Van Dijk and Gomez will recover.
Konate, though, does not fit that profile. At all.
He’s currently injured right now, in fact, and hasn’t played since December 17th. That’s seven RB Leipzig games he’s missed.
But per Transfermarkt, that was his fourth injury in 2020 alone. Konate missed nine games across the latter part of last season and the start of this before his latest injury.
Even worse, he only returned from injury in May 2020 after tearing a muscle in October 2019 – missing 27 games.
This is a massive problem if Liverpool want Konate. ‘Injury-prone’ is just about the last descriptor they want right now, given how this campaign has gone.
We hope they know what they’re doing here because this feels like a huge risk.