Joe Gomez suffers ‘serious’ injury on England duty, plunging Liverpool deeper into defensive crisis with Virgil van Dijk already out for the season and Trent Alexander-Arnold also injured
- Liverpool centre back Joe Gomez has suffered serious injury in England training
- Reds defender is now set for a prolonged period of time out on the sidelines
- Jurgen Klopp is already facing a season without star defender Virgil van Dijk
- Liverpool’s defensive issues are mounting, with Trent Alexander-Arnold also out
Liverpool fear central defender Joe Gomez has suffered a serious injury whilst on England duty.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are already in the midst of a central defensive crisis with Virgil van Dijk set to miss the rest of the season with a serious knee injury, Trent Alexander-Arnold out for four weeks with a calf strain and Fabinho – who has been deployed as a makeshift centre back – still to return from an absence with a thigh problem.
But Sportsmail understands that Gomez is now set for his own spell on the sidelines after sustaining an injury at England’s St George’s Park base ahead of Thursday’s friendly against the Republic of Ireland at Wembley.
Sources close to the England camp indicate Gomez’s problem is a knee-related injury.
Liverpool defender Joe Gomez has suffered a serious injury while in training with England
Gomez (right) is pictured in England training on Wednesday before suffering his injury
Jurgen Klopp is likely to be furious as he adds another defensive casualty to his growing list
The injury will almost certainly rule him out of the forthcoming international fixtures but Liverpool will now fear that Gomez misses a major part of their title defence.
The defender was sure to be a crucial part of Klopp’s plans during the coming months given the injury suffered by Van Dijk in his now infamous collision with Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford during the Merseyside derby.
But the Anfield club are now set to be without their key defender; a major blow as they head into one of the most hectic periods of the season.
With Van Dijk a long-term absentee and Gomez a major fitness concern, it appears increasingly likely that Liverpool will enter the transfer market in January to sign defensive reinforcements.
Klopp is likely to be furious that one of his players has suffered an injury ahead of an international friendly.
He has already been outspoken about players’ hectic schedules during what is a truncated season due to last season’s Covid delay.
The England centre back suffered the injury during a training session on Wednesday morning
Virgil van Dijk is already out for the season and now Gomez has joined him on treatment table
‘Hopefully we can play the Euros next summer but if we continue like this let’s see which players can be part of that,’ Klopp said on Sunday.
‘We played [last month] after the international break at 12.30 on Saturday at Everton. Some of my players were coming back from Peru.
‘These kind of things should not happen.’
Trent Alexander-Arnold is also out for the next four weeks with calf strain suffered at Man City
Gareth Southgate was leading a training session for his England squad ahead of their friendly