Liverpool are set to be without seven first-team players for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.
Already without key players such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, the Reds had a sobering weekend in regards to injuries. The 4-1 win over Brentford on Saturday was reason to celebrate, but damaging issues to Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones put a big dampener on things.
And according to The Daily Mail, both Jota and Jones are now certain to miss this weekend’s Wembley showpiece. Scans are said to have confirmed that neither player will feature against the Blues. There are also claimed to be ‘concerns’ that Jota will be out for a further two months.
Alexander-Arnold is another reportedly set to miss Sunday’s final having been yet to recover from a knee injury.
Alongside those three players, Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic, Joel Matip and Ben Doak are named as ‘long-term absentees’ and will play no part against Chelsea.
Finally, both Alisson Becker and Dominik Szoboszlai are said to be ‘major doubts’ to make it in time, too.
Liverpool injury list continues to grow
When you line all of these players up, it really is a lot to take in for Liverpool. Factor in that Darwin Nunez was also taken off at half-time on Saturday as a precaution, and it starts to look really worrying.
With Nunez added in, this 10 would make a formidable side in itself.
It’s perhaps a funny twist of fate that perhaps their most important player in all this – Alisson – is unlikely to have been playing anyway.
Moving forward we’d obviously love the Brazilian to be back as soon as possible, but for this particular fixture, his absence isn’t impactful.
Of the other eight named here, you’d have to imagine that at least four of them would be starters. Amongst that though, Alexander-Arnold and Szoboszlai are arguably the only nailed-on players who would be in the XI.
Jurgen Klopp has shown that he likes Jones in these big games, so it’s likely – but not certain – that the Scouser would have played.
The same could be said of Jota, too. In the form that he’s been in, again, Klopp would probably have picked the 27-year-old. With Mohamed Salah now back though, he could have possibly dropped out of the team.
In terms of Thiago, well, who knows. But you’d imagine it would be one of he or Jones. Matip would have made a case if he were fit, but Ibrahima Konate has long been seen as the preferred partner to Virgil van Dijk at centre-back. Meanwhile, there’s little chance Doak or Bajcetic would have been picked at this stage.
So, while this is no doubt a concerning list, there is hope. Liverpool can still put out a really strong team at Wembley without all of these players and that’s testament to their strength in depth. No need to worry…
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