England have confirmed that neither Jordan Henderson nor Joe Gomez will feature against Kosovo on Sunday and that the pair have now returned to Liverpool.
Gomez came on in the second half of the 7-0 win over Montenegro at Wembley on Thursday night, while Henderson wasn’t included in the match day squad.
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As confirmed by the FA on their official site, the Liverpool captain hadn’t recovered from a viral infection and was left out, while Gomez picked up an injury issue in training on Friday.
In turn, neither have been cleared to be fit enough to travel to Kosovo, and so they have now returned to Merseyside as they will undoubtedly receive treatment and be given time to rest over the remainder of the international break to avoid missing further playing time for their club.
Liverpool face a trip to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace on November 23, and so Jurgen Klopp will be hopeful that he can call on the England pair for that encounter if necessary, although he does have quality depth available in his squad.
That depth has helped Liverpool open up an eight-point gap at the top of the Premier League table, with the Merseyside giants hoping that the international break won’t break their momentum after beating title rivals Manchester City last weekend.
As noted by BBC Sport, Gomez was booed by a minority of fans at Wembley in midweek after an altercation with Raheem Sterling led to the Man City ace being dropped for the encounter with Montenegro.
While he’s expected to be available for selection to face Kosovo, it’s unclear whether or not Gareth Southgate has perhaps not only left Gomez behind as a precaution due to his injury or arguably also to avoid any further debate or controversy being stirred up outside of the England camp over the pair being together on the trip to Kosovo.
