At the press conference in Chicago, Liverpool FC head coach Andoni Iraola offered up an update on the status of defender Joe Gomez after he limped off against Sunderland in Nashville last Saturday.
Joe has a muscle injury. I think it was quite clear since he complained straight away, so it will depend how he evolves, but he will be some weeks off.”
“It’s a muscle injury and [with] muscle injuries it is difficult to say one day, but normally I always put myself as one month.
“If it goes very good the
injury is a little bit less, if [not] it goes a little more. It’s not massive, it’s a normal muscle injury, [but] I think it’s going to be impossible to have him for the start of the season because we are not so far [away]. It shouldn’t be a lot more.”
As for how Liverpool plan to cope without Joe’s services for the rest of preseason, Iraola said:
“You have seen these games, we are pretty thin in the centre-back position. We still don’t have Virgil. The only real centre-backs we have right now are Mor and Ify, that are 18 years old, just arrived to the club and they are doing incredibly well.”
“Yesterday Luke Chambers played there, he is not a centre-back but he played really, really well. We have to until we recover some bodies.”
“I think Jeremy is ready to go and we will recover Virgil, but I’m happy that playing against Sunderland, against Wrexham – good teams – with 18-year-old centre-backs, the team has showed composure and solidity at the back and [that] speaks very well about them.”
I would be stunned if Liverpool don’t dip into the market for defensive reinforcements, but stranger things have happened.
