Lucas Leiva Faces Six-Week Injury Spell

Liverpool fans might have been wondering about Lucas Leiva's future at the club after a couple of commanding displays at centre back. Could the Brazilian midfielder move back regularly into a centre back spot? Could he become part of a stronger defensive unit in the back four next season? The performance in the Capital One Cup final was immense, but after missing the resounding revenge victory with what seemed to be a minor injury, Liverpool's manager shared some bad news today.

Jürgen Klopp unfortunately confirmed that the 29-year-old's thigh injury is more serious than initially thought, meaning that Liverpool will be without a trusted squad member for a while.

Lucas is really bad, really unfortunate, a little bit more serious than we thought. I've never heard about an injury you can get like this on the penalty but it was only because it was a little bit injured before. He didn't feel it too much on the run-up but after the shot, it was gone.I don't know exactly how long but five to six weeks. Not too good.

Six weeks is a really long time when the season has reached March, but Liverpool should have enough in the squad to cope with Lucas' absence. It's a shame that just after Lucas finally got to play in a Wembley final for Liverpool, he gets injured! Whatever the Football Gods are trying to tell us, it probably isn't very polite. Five to six weeks is the damage, but hopefully the model professional will return to a squad still fighting in the Premier League and Europa League.

Fortunately, Mamadou Sakho is on his way back from injury, and according to Klopp, the defender managed to train "a little bit" for the first time since being injured. Sunday's trip to Crystal Palace is probably too soon for a return, but the manager did confirm that Daniel Sturridge is training "completely normally" after what appeared to be a sapping 120 minutes last weekend.