Jurgen Klopp has confirmed an agonising injury blow for Liverpool ahead of the Merseyside derby on Wednesday night.
It was only in the last fortnight that Diogo Jota returned to action after two months out with a knee problem (Transfermarkt), but having scored in the 3-1 win over Fulham on Sunday, he’s unfortunately set for another spell on the sidelines.
Speaking at this afternoon’s press conference ahead of the Everton game, the Reds manager said (via Liverpool Echo): “Diogo scored the goal but felt a little bit and now he felt it a little bit more and now he’s out for two weeks.”
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When pressed for more information, Klopp replied: “I can’t really say a lot about it, to be honest. He felt a little bit in the hip, but he was fine. Then he started the last game and was ok and with the finish, it’s a small one but we are late in the season.
“Obviously it’s not a great moment for any injury. It’s two weeks, pretty much nothing but enough to be unavailable.”
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Liverpool sorely missed Jota’s clinical edge in their two visits to Old Trafford in recent weeks, having dominated both games but failed to win either, and he looked like making up for lost time when netting at Craven Cottage on Sunday.
Alas, Klopp is again reduced to four senior attackers for the next three games at least, judging by the two-week timeline he mentioned, and he’ll be praying that none of the other forwards – or indeed anyone in the squad – is struck down by injury during the title run-in.
Hopefully by the time the 27-year-old is projected to return (for the visit to Aston Villa in our penultimate match of the season), we’ll still be in a position where we could realistically win the Premier League.
In the meantime, the onus falls primarily on Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo to compensate for the attacking output that Jota looked set to provide in our forthcoming fixtures.
If Klopp says 2 weeks add on another week