‘We don’t know’: Thomas Frank admits he could now be without £40m key player for Monday’s game vs Liverpool

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Brentford manager Thomas Frank has admitted that he doesn’t know if star man Ivan Toney will play against Liverpool on Monday.

The forward was stretchered off right at the end of the Bees 2-0 win over West Ham United last night. Despite Toney looking in distress as he was carted from the field, Frank told brentfordfc.com that he was still ‘hopeful’ the injury wasn’t serious.

“Of course, it didn’t look great, but I’ve also been in this game long enough to know that you never know exactly what it is until it’s been assessed over the following days,” said the Dane.

“Hopefully it’s a minor injury, a minor thing, there’s a good chance for that, but of course it could be worse. We don’t know yet.”

Bad news for Brentford

There are only three days turnaround between Friday’s win over West Ham and Monday’s clash with Liverpool for Brentford. As a result, you’d have to assume that there’s no chance Toney will be fit to face the Reds.

Even if the injury isn’t as bad as first feared, Monday will surely come too soon for him.

As Toney is comfortably Brentford’s top scorer this season, that comes as a huge blow to them. The 26-year-old is in brilliant form, scoring five times in his last four games.

With 12 goals in the Premier League this season, only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have outscored him in 2022/23. It’s the kind of return which makes sense of his reported £40m valuation.

Toney is also famously a Liverpool fan, and will be gutted if he has to sit out against them. He is yet to score against Jurgen Klopp’s side in the Premier League and would relish the chance to do so whilst in such a rich vein of form.

From a Liverpool point of view, the England man’s absence could obviously improve their chances of getting a result at the Brentford Community Stadium.

Toney scored twice against Manchester City in November and was also on target against Spurs earlier this week. He seems to enjoy putting one past the big sides in the league. Liverpool would have been next on his target list.

However, should Toney be missing, Liverpool still won’t take Brentford lightly. Frank has got them going superbly well and they currently sit just five points behind the Reds in the table. Toney or no Toney, Liverpool will have to be at their best on Monday.