Liverpool’s hosts are struggling with West Ham in the Premier League this weekend, but manager Arne Slott will not be able to call up Florian Wirtz as the German international is not available for the game.
Arne Slott was unable to provide a timeline for Florian Wirtz’s return from injury on Friday (Image: LFC TV)
Arne Slott has admitted he does not know when Florian Wirths will be able to return after the Liverpool midfielder suffered a back injury last weekend.
The Germany international was forced to miss the team’s 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday after picking up the injury during the warm-up. Slott confirmed Wirtz will not feature when Liverpool host West Ham on Saturday, but said he did not know when the former Bayer Leverkusen star would return to action.
“Jeremy (Frimpong) trained with us several times this week, so he’s available. But I don’t think Florian (Wurtz) will be available,” Slott said in Friday morning’s pre-match press conference.
“It’s disappointing. It’s disappointing every time a player is out. We didn’t expect anything to happen after last week.”
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While discussing when Wirtz will return, Slott added, “I don’t know at this point. Usually when I say that, I know and I don’t like to share it, but this time I honestly don’t know.”
“It’s a big achievement for Wirtz to stay healthy for this long because he needed to step up from where he was playing in the Premier League and at Liverpool. The fact that he’s been able to stay healthy for this long says a lot about his mentality and work rate.”
“It’s disappointing for him and for us because he’s been playing really, really well lately.”
Wirtz was absent during the warm-up ahead of Liverpool’s win over Nottingham Forest last Sunday (Image: Getty Images)
Liverpool go into Saturday’s game against the Hammers knowing that a win would put them level on points with fourth-placed Manchester United, with the Red Devils and Chelsea facing off on Sunday.
But Slott insists Liverpool will remain focused on themselves and not the teams around them towards the end of the season.
“From my point of view, this is another game for us and we are not as focused on the other team as the manager always says. We are mainly focused only on ourselves,” he added.
“We know that we need to win a lot of games, because our competition for the Champions League qualification is also a very good team. Winning a lot is what we are focused on. We are conscious of the table, but not so much about points and differences, that’s for sure.”
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