Planning for injuries can often be impossible for the biggest clubs, because top quality players are unlikely to sign if they know they’ll be nothing more than a back-up option.
It means that Liverpool were always going to have a noticeable drop off in quality at the back when Virgil van Dijk went down with a long term injury, but they still had enough in the squad to cope.
Fabinho looked like a natural centre back when he played and Joel Matip and Joe Gomez are still very good players, while Nat Phillips even came in and looked excellent.
That doesn’t mean they could afford any more injuries at the back, and this news filtering through about Joe Gomez is deeply worrying to hear:
Liverpool defender Joe Gomez suffered an injury during training with England today. Gareth Southgate is likely to provide an update this evening at a press conference ahead of the Republic of Ireland game.
— paul joyce (@_pauljoyce) November 11, 2020
The internet rumour mill always goes into overdrive in situations like this but there are suggestions that this is a bad one, so these are worrying times for Liverpool and their supporters as they wait for the official updates to come through.
Sky Sports have reported that it’s a potentially serious injury, but they don’t offer any timescales or details at this point.
If he is out for a while then it leaves Jurgen Klopp on a tough spot with his lack of defensive options, so let’s hope it just a knock that won’t take too long to recover from.