Liverpool have suffered a huge injury blow as Fabinho has been ruled out until 2020 after suffering an ankle injury against Napoli in midweek.
The 26-year-old has been a pivotal figure for Jurgen Klopp’s side so far this season, making 19 appearances across all competitions and firmly establishing himself as key presence in the heart of the midfield.
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That in turn has helped the Merseyside giants open up an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League table after 13 games, while they’ll hope to secure their place in the Champions League knockout stage next month.
However, they’ll have to do so without Fabinho, as the club have confirmed in an official statement that the Brazilian international has been ruled out until the New Year after suffering ankle ligament damage.
Naturally, Liverpool will hope that he can return ahead of schedule, but it looks as though he will certainly miss a crucial period in the season as the Reds have an incredibly busy December.
Klopp’s men play eight games next month across all competitions, and so the German tactician would have been desperate to have as close to a fully-fit squad at his disposal as possible to ensure that he has enough quality depth to cope.
While he still has talented individuals ready to step into his midfield from the bench perhaps with a little reshuffle needed, it’s still a blow to lose Fabinho given he has been an almost ever-present in the line-up since the start of the season.
He’ll hope that his teammates can cope with his absence until the end of the year, but it will certainly now be interesting to see how the Reds react to adversity as it could be a real statement of their intent to win major trophies this season if they can maintain their form regardless of whether or not they lose key individuals to injury.