Lovren Avoids Serious Knee Injury

Following a painful knee injury in the second half against West Brom when Craig Gardner swung through the ball and left his studs high, there was some concern that Dejan Lovren could miss months with damage to the ligaments. Fortunately, results of scans today came back quickly, and the news is good.

Lovren will still miss time—likely about three weeks—but if there had been anything more than bruises and strains to go along with a gash that required five stitches, it would have been far longer. There is further good news for the club in the form of Mamadou Sakho, who is also ready to return from his own injury.

It’s still a blow for Lovren, though, even if not quite so bad as at first feared. Having been playing the best football of his Liverpool career under Jürgen Klopp, Lovren had over the past month finally begun to show something of the £20M centre half Brendan Rodgers bought from Southampton two summers ago.

This injury interrupts that recent positive momentum, though a busy schedule in January and February when he returns should ensure that no matter what Liverpool’s defensive picture looks like in a few weeks, there should be games for Lovren to work his way back in. In the meantime, a Skrtel-Sakho defensive pairing picks itself.

At the very least, Lovren will be expected to miss games against Watford, Leicester City, Sunderland, and West Ham. If he heals quickly, he could be in the squad again for the first leg of the League Cup semi-final against Stoke City on January 5th.