Pep Lijnders has confirmed that Liverpool forward Xherdan Shaqiri will not return from injury until after the November international break.
The Reds’ assistant manager shared that the Switzerland international will be given time by the club, given the sensitivity of his calf injury.
“Shaq will only be back after the international break,” Lijnders told the official club website.
Shaqiri is yet to start a single game in the Premier League for Liverpool this season, coming off the bench and only featuring for a total of 11 minutes.
The £80,000-a-week forward [Spotrac] has also struggled in the Champions League, coming on as a substitute once and completing three minutes of action in Europe.
OPINION
The news just gets worst and worst for Shaqiri, who simply put has endured the nightmare start to this season at Anfield. The 28-year-old will surely be getting more frustrated as time goes on, and his chances of returning to Klopp’s plans are getting slimmer. This latest update means that Shaqiri will miss Liverpool’s next four fixtures, including tough games against both Arsenal and Manchester City, the latter a game that could potentially define their system at such an early stage. Klopp will have been wanting his best players available to him to give him the best possible squad depth, and know he will be forced to put a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of Divock Origi to cover his prolific front three. The fact that the fixture list is so busy means that Shaqiri will pretty much have had guaranteed chances to play before the next international break something that is not going to happen now due to his calf injury.
