The Liverpool and England defender, Joe Gomez will have further tests on a knee injury that England coach Gareth Southgate is “hoping and praying” will not turn to a long-term absence.
Defender Joe Gomez acquired his knee injury while training with England for Thursday’s friendly against the Republican of Ireland.
The 23-year-old has returned to Liverpool for what the Premier League club says ways “further diagnosis” with their medical team. This means the defender will miss England’s games against Ireland, Belgium, and Iceland.
“I can’t tell you how serious it is as he’s yet to have scans”. Said Southgate.
“What was upsetting was to see he was in a fair bit of pain. There was nobody around him when the injury happened. I didn’t like that element of it. We’re hopeful for him that it’s not what it might be. But it’s not a good situation”.
“My immediate thoughts are with him because he’s had some difficulties with injury in the past. We are hoping and praying that it’s not going to be a long-term one. But we just have to see”. Concluded Southgate.
Already, Liverpool has Virgil van Dijk on a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a knee ligament injury. However, the first-class defender already had surgery performed on his injured knee.
The Premier League champions are also without Fabinho who had stepped in for the Netherlands international Van Dijk. He suffered a hamstring injury.
Additionally, the Premier League club has an injury concern over their right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold who was taken off during a 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Sunday.
What happens to Liverpool?
Gomez injury while on international duty means Jurgen Klopp now faces a serious defensive crisis. It is expected that the situation will increase his growing frustration at the packed fixture schedule.
Joel Matip played alongside Gomez at Etihad but he was only back from injury and has a chequered fitness record. Effectively, Gomez was Klopp’s linchpin in that position with the 19-year-old Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips also stepping in since Van Dijk and Fabinho were sidelined.
News that Gomez could miss the rest of the season leaves Klopp with a serious problem as the fixtures continue to come thick and fast. Surely, this means that the coach will enter the transfer market for a central defender when the window re-opens in January.