David Lynch has provided Liverpool fans with some good news on the injury front coming into the hectic festive fixture schedule.
The Reds currently have several players sidelined, including Ibrahima Konate, who suffered a blow to his knee at the end of the 2-0 win over Real Madrid a fortnight ago.
There were initial fears that the Frenchman could be ruled out for approximately six weeks, possibly even 10 in the worst-case scenario, but those projections now appear to have been excessive.
Speaking to Anfield Agenda, Lynch – whose work can be followed on Substack – cited a potential comeback date for the 25-year-old after his knee injury, and it mightn’t be too much longer before we see our number 5 back in action.
The journalist said of Konate: “He’s not in a knee brace now, so that’s encouraging. It kind of tallies with what I said, that it’s not quite that five to six weeks that was touted.
“There’s a real hope that he can be back before that, so hopefully back end of December we’ll see him, rather than into January, and what a boost that will be to get him straight back as well.”
If Lynch’s timeline proves to be accurate, then Konate will have missed just four weeks out through injury. That period still encompasses several fixtures, but the Merseyside derby postponement will have worked in his favour, and it also means that he’d be back in time to face Manchester United on 5 January.
While Joe Gomez has been performing commendably in the Frenchman’s absence, the lack of full-back cover due to the injuries to Conor Bradley and Kostas Tsimikas will simply heighten the sense of relief about the ex-RB Leipzig centre-back returning, given the dearth of defensive cover currently available to Arne Slot.
Prior to the 25-year-old getting injured against Real Madrid, he and Virgil van Dijk had formed an imperious partnership which saw the Reds concede only nine goals in 17 Premier League and Champions League games by the end of November.
Konate will obviously need time to get back up to speed once he returns to action, but from fearing not so long ago that we wouldn’t see him until February, it’d be a massive boost indeed if he recovers in time for United’s visit to Anfield in our first fixture of 2025.
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