Joe Gomez Closes in on Return to Action

Injuries have been a prominent topic in the LFC sphere for the past eighteen months, with an assortment of fitness troubles bookending a rash of hamstring injuries last winter. At some point or other in the Klopp era, every first team player not named Nathaniel Clyne or Alberto Moreno has missed game time due to injury, a statistic the Normal One will hope isn't replicated this year.

The very first of the lot was Joe Gomez, who suffered an ACL injury - while away on international duty, naturally - in the German's very first week as manager, ending his season with seven months still to go. Thus, the young centre-back never got on the pitch in Klopp's first season, despite having started to become a favourite of former manager Brendan Rodgers.

Having rehabilitated his knee injury, Gomez was ready to start over this summer, but a week into pre-season, suffered another affliction, this time tendinopathy of the achilles tendon. Medical staff at Melwood have been hesitant to offer a return date for the player, but are now indicating a return to training in mid- to late October. At that point, Gomez will have been sidelined for a full year and will likely require a long period of training, and perhaps even a loan away from Anfield, before he can be expected to be part of Klopp's plans. That is assuming the rehabilitation of the ankle goes as planned, which can hardly be taken for granted, given the notoriously unpredictable nature of tendinopathy injuries.

In other words, although there are outlines of a time frame now, fans will have to be patient before they can expect to see young Joe Gomez strut his stuff at Anfield again. Still only 19, and having shown glimpses in the appearances he made before the injury that indicate he may well be a very special talent - a combination of size, fluidity, ability and composure that is rarely seen at the position, not to mention at that age - he should undoubtedly be afforded that patience.