Liverpool have largely avoided injuries as a topic during the early part of Arne Slot’s reign as head coach.
The Reds have had to contend with a raft of fitness issues over recent years, with muscle problems regularly cropping up amongst the squad.
However, having added head of conditioning Ruben Peeters to the Liverpool coaching staff, Slot has hired a man with a reputation for keeping his players fit whilst at Feyenoord.
And so far, the work Peeters and the rest of the Liverpool conditioning staff have been doing has certainly been paying off.
Inevitably, there are still one or two minor worries at the moment. Federico Chiesa is missing and it remains to be seen whether he returns for Saturday’s game against Crystal Palace.
Another one who has been out for slightly longer is Harvey Elliott. With the 21-year-old having already missed five games for Liverpool this season, journalist David Lynch has provided an update on when Elliott may be back in action.
Harvey Elliott set to miss a little longer
Elliott will be massively frustrated to have been robbed of featuring in a crucial period in the season under Slot.
Although the youngster would not have been a starter for the new Liverpool head coach, he would certainly have been given his chances to impress.
Elliott was good in pre-season and looks a natural fit to be Dominik Szoboszlai’s understudy in the attacking midfield role.
As Szoboszali is in mixed form at the moment, Harvey could have capitalised on that and given Slot another option.
READ MORE: Steve McManaman feels sorry for ‘fantastic’ Liverpool player after what’s happened under Arne Slot
Speaking to Anfield Agenda, though, Lynch confirms that Elliott is set to miss Saturday’s trip to Palace and may still be out for ‘another couple of weeks’ beyond the international break.
“Harvey, that was always kind of spoken about as the other side of the international break,” says the reporter.
“I’m not entirely sure whether that will be immediately or whether it might just edge into another couple of weeks after that. But certainly this month [October] was the initial expectation I was given.”
Will anyone else miss the Crystal Palace game?
While Elliott was described as ‘amazing’ by Alexis Mac Allister recently, Liverpool have become used to having to deal without him for now.
As a result, they shouldn’t miss the No.19 too much at Selhurst Park. Although it is worth remembering that Elliott was the man who got the last-gasp winner in this match last season.
Meanwhile, Slot will no doubt update on Chiesa’s progress when he speaks to the press on Friday morning.
Aside from those two players, there are no current issues within the Liverpool squad. Diogo Jota is clearly fit having come off the bench on Wednesday, and Darwin Nunez has shaken off illness, too.
Whether there are any new problems beyond that, we’ll soon find out.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
