Liverpool will be without three players for Wednesday’s Premier League match against Sunderland at Anfield. The Dutch coach addressed the player’s availability in a press conference on Tuesday, revealing some complicated injury news. Conor Bradley has returned to training sessions but is not yet at full fitness.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Frimpong is inching closer to making a comeback after suffering a muscle problem in October. “Conor took part in his first training session yesterday at team training,” Slott admitted.
“We have to manage it little by little because he’s not 100 percent yet, so don’t get your hopes up too much or get too early. The good thing is he’s already doing certain things with the group.”
“I expect the same thing to happen with Jeremy next week. They’ll both be back, but unfortunately they’ll be playing a lot of games over the next few weeks. Jeremy will at least train with us, but he’ll miss at least three more games, for example. I hope Conor will be available for Leeds.”
With both defenders absent, Slott has been forced to use Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Joe Gomez at right-back for the past three games.
The third player missing is long-term injured Giovanni Leoni, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in September and faces a season-long layoff.
“He’s not in good shape because he tore his ACL, so he’s going to be out for about a year,” Slott said at the time. “It’s very difficult to be positive because he’s so young, he came to a new country and he played very well in his first game.
“But if you look closely, you see that he is still very young and has many years to go before he recovers.”
Slott also admitted that Szoboszlai, who replaced Mohamed Salah on the right at West Ham, is not a natural replacement and wants him to “play as a winger” from now on.
Liverpool are not alone in dealing with missing players, with Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris also providing an update on three members of his squad ahead of Wednesday night’s game.
Mohamadou Habib Diarra continues to dominate the sidelines as he recovers from groin surgery. Meanwhile, Noah Sadiki is still recovering from a facial injury sustained in the match against Bournemouth at the weekend, but Le Bris is optimistic he will be able to return.
“He has suffered and is still suffering,” the French coach explained. “He’ll be fine on Wednesday, but he was in pain.”
Meanwhile, Dennis Cirkin and Leo Helde played for the Under-21s last week and continued their rehabilitation. “The good news is they’re really close,” Le Bris said.
“Like Romaine a week ago. It’s very important that everyone is connected and at their best and ready.”
