Pep Lijnders shares which of Liverpool’s injured players will be the ‘first one’ to come back

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Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders has shared an update on the team’s injury problems.

The Reds are set to be without a number of big players ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Chelsea. As Lijnders faced the press today, there was only one question everyone really wanted to know the answer to: who will be available.

Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is that three players – Dominik Szoboszlai, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah – appear to be in contention. The bad news is that the rest are out for some time.

“We come in a crazy schedule again, so we play every three days,” Lijnders began. “It’s important for us to use each minute, use each day to really look how the players are. This is for Mo, Dom and Darwin.

“Two training sessions to go, let’s see how they are and then we can make a decision in the last minute. And all the others, we know it’s longer. Ali has a muscle injury. Trent, LCL. Jota, medial ligament, MCL. Curtis [has] a high ankle sprain. They will be longer out.

“Curtis is probably the first one [to come back] around the international break. All the others will be after the international break.”

Jones ‘first one back’ for Liverpool

This was perhaps the best news that Liverpool fans could have hoped for today. We already knew that Alisson, Alexander-Arnold and Jota for example would already be missing.

Jones was another who had already been ruled out of Sunday’s final.

But to hear that Salah, Szoboszlai and Nunez are in with a shout is great. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they’ll be playing. It could be that any or all three are either out or in the squad. But they’ve got a chance.

For the rest, well, what can you say. That Alisson, Trent and Jota will be out for more than a month is really disappointing news.

Of course, we already kind of knew it about Alisson after the Brazil manager claimed he wouldn’t be available for the upcoming March fixtures. But it’s still a real shame.

With Alexander-Arnold too, there had seemed to be hope that he would be back in time to face Manchester City next month. That no longer looks like being the case.

Liverpool do have players to step in in the meantime, but both Alisson and Trent are huge misses. It could have a massive effect on where the title goes. Jones coming back will be a relief too, of course. But in all honesty, he isn’t the most pressing absentee.

Anyway, for now it’s full focus on Sunday and let’s cross everything that the trio in contention are able to play a part.