Arne Slot has issued a worrying update on the injuries that Conor Bradley and Ibrahima Konate sustained in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Real Madrid on Wednesday night.
That famous result may have come at a cost for the Reds, with two of their defenders succumbing to injury as the young right-back hobbled off in the closing minutes and the France international required treatment at full-time.
The LFC head coach held his pre-Manchester City press conference this afternoon and was inevitably asked for the latest on the duo.
Although Slot was unable to provide a concise answer so soon after last night’s match (and having been occupied by team training earlier today), he suggested that the manner in which both left the pitch was a worry.
The 46-year-old said (via Liverpool Echo): “They are still being assessed, so it’s difficult to say where they are. Let’s wait and see, but it’s never a good sign that we had to take Conor off and Ibou didn’t walk off as he should after such a fantastic game. He should have clapped the fans but he couldn’t.
“They are still being assessed so close to last night and I have just come off the training pitch, so we have to wait and see.”
We’ll have to wait for further updates over the next 72 hours prior to the Man City game, although football injury analyst Physio Scout on X has shared a possible timeline on how long Bradley and Konate will be absent, depending on the severity of their respective issues.
They suggested that the Northern Ireland youngster might have nothing more than ‘tightness’ in his hamstring, in which case he might yet be available for Sunday, although the worst-case scenario is that he’ll be out for all of December.
On the French centre-back, they detected a ‘concern for an MCL injury’ which at best will sideline him for a week or two, but if severe could rule him out for at least six weeks and possibly until the end of January.
Slot will therefore be very relieved to have Trent Alexander-Arnold available to start once more, as he confirmed in today’s press conference, although Konate’s absence will require one or both of Jarell Quansah and Joe Gomez to step up over the next few fixtures.
Let’s hope that the two injury concerns which arose last night aren’t serious and that both players will make as swift a recovery as realistically possible.
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