Aston Villa announce whether Philippe Coutinho will be fit to play in Roberto Firmino’s farewell match

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Former Liverpool player Philippe Coutinho has been ruled out of Aston Villa’s trip to Anfield on Saturday.

It’s set to be an emotion-fuelled day for the Reds, as they wave goodbye to some of Coutinho’s illustrious former teammates. Most notably of all, Liverpool will be honouring the Villa man’s best friend in football – Roberto Firmino.

It would have been a nice moment to see Coutinho and Firmino on the Anfield pitch together one last time. But alas, as per a post on Villa’s official Twitter account today, Phil will play no part in Saturday’s match.

“Philippe will miss the rest of the season due to the injury he suffered before the win over Spurs at Villa Park last weekend,” said the update.

A real shame. Hopefully Coutinho still makes the trip up to Anfield to wish his old Brazil and Liverpool colleague all the best.

A tale of two Brazilians

Saturday will represent a sad ending to Firmino’s time delighting the Anfield crowd. But whether Coutinho is present or not on the day, the opposition serves as a reminder as to just why the 31-year-old is loved so much.

In another life, Coutinho could have been afforded a similar grand goodbye by the Liverpool faithful. He was well on his way to becoming a legend at the club by the time he left in 2018.

But as Jurgen Klopp seemingly foresaw, the 30-year-old has instead gone on to lose his way in the game.

Some will rightly point to the fact that Coutinho has amassed plenty of trophies since he left Liverpool. But in reality, the little magician didn’t contribute much to those victories.

Had he stayed at Liverpool, he could have helped lead the team into a new age under Klopp. He could have been the main man.

It’s hard to know whether Coutinho now regrets the decisions he made. But if he is present at Anfield on Sunday, he’ll surely feel a pang as he realises that this could have been him.

Now a mere afterthought at Villa, it’s easy to see Phil moving on this summer. How nice would it be if he and Bobby ended up together once again? Two great Brazilians with magic in their boots, two very different Anfield stories.