Liverpool will be without Joe Gomez for this weekend’s Premier League clash away to Tottenham through injury, Arne Slot has confirmed.
The Reds won 2-0 at home to Brighton on Saturday, but injuries to Gomez and Dominik Szoboszlai were negatives on the day, as the absentees rack up for the champions.
Next up is a trip to Spurs on Saturday, but speaking to Liverpoolfc.com after the victory over the Seagulls, Slot confirmed that Gomez is almost certainly going to miss the game:
“If I have a player who goes off with a muscle injury like Joe, that’s normally not a positive thing. I would not expect him to be in the squad next week [at Tottenham Hotspur]. But sometimes you get a positive surprise. People now maybe understand a bit better why I was always so cautious not to play him so many games. I assume many people thought, ‘If you have a defender, if you have a right full-back, why don’t you play him?’
“And Dom, it was his ankle. It didn’t look great when I just saw him. But he has unbelievable mentality so let’s hope for the best. The good thing is that Conor Bradley comes back from a suspension [next week] and normally Jeremie Frimpong will train with us also. But we’re also going to miss Mo [Salah] because he is going to go to the Africa Cup of Nations.”
The need for a new Liverpool centre-back highlighted
Gomez’s absence against Spurs is a blow for Liverpool, but on the plus side, Conor Bradley will be back from suspension to start at right-back.
This shows how much the Reds need to sign a new centre-back, rather than sell Ibrahima Konate, which has been surprisingly mooted of late.
The Frenchman and Virgil van Dijk are now the only fit options in that position, and Arne Slot cannot afford to have to play the likes of Wataru Endo or Ryan Gravenberch there later in the season.
It is hard not to feel sorry for Gomez, who has suffered such an injury-plagued career, but his absence hopefully isn’t too lengthy, given his status as a “special” versatile option, as Slot once said.
