Glen Johnson Out With High Ankle Sprain

On Sunday, Glen Johnson was finally looking like he might have been rounding the corner back in to good form. He had a few stumbles early in the match against Manchester United, but afterwards he got himself righted and was having a stormer of a match, rampaging up and down the right side of the pitch, giving all kinds of trouble to Danny Welbeck and Patrice Evra.

Then, in the second half, Johnson and Evra went in on a crunching challenge. While at first it looked like Johnson got the better end of it, it quickly became apparent that something was not right. He was pulled as soon as it was obvious that it wasn't something that he was going to walk off. Liverpool fans around the world have been holding their breath and hoping against hope that the other shoe wasn't going to drop and reveal that Glen would be out for a long time.

Well, now we know.

Today, the club announced that Johnson suffered a high-ankle sprain. While they haven't yet said how severe a sprain it is or how long he'll be out, it's safe to say that we'll be missing the club's top right back for at least the next month, and probably longer. Generally speaking, most high ankle sprains take at least six weeks to come back from, though if it's a less severe sprain he could be back a little quicker.

Either way, it's an injury that generally takes some extra time to be "all the way" back from, even once Johnson is back on the pitch. While Andre Wisdom and newcomer Tiago Ilori can do a job wide on the right, I'll be a lot more comfortable once Martin Kelly has returned to fitness and can play there again.

There's also been no news on Kolo Toure's groin injury past the report from a few days ago that it wasn't as severe as it was first feared. Still, we probably won't see him for a few weeks, either.