Liverpool Could Rest Injured Coutinho For Huddersfield Friendship Showdown

In the wake of that defeat to Tottenham last weekend, the Liverpool-verse has been a hot bed of sweaty handwringing and swears. The defense was bad. The midfield was bad. The forwards were bad. And with no midweek match to cleanse the palette, we’ve essentially put all of our anxious eggs into one basket called Huddersfield Town. A win against Huddersfield at Anfield on Saturday would at least scrape off the mountain of overflowing suds from the top of our pints of dissatisfaction.

Sadio Mané remains sidelined with injury already. As, of course, is Adam Lallana and the nearly forgotten Nathaniel Clyne. These are choice players at Liverpool and the team has been struggling to cope with their absences this season.

The good news is that we’ve still had Philippe Coutinho in the team, doing Coutinho things. The bad news is that Coutinho is now questionable to make the pitch against Huddersfield. The wily Brazilian has been playing through a back injury of late that has reared up enough this week to give Jürgen Klopp pause over Coutinho’s inclusion.

No word on whether this is the same back injury from the start of the season or if this is more of a PSG back injury, but I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.

“Not clear in the moment,” said Klopp when asked about Coutinho’s situation and availability for the squad.

“Last week he had some back problems before the Tottenham game and during the week it settled with treatment.

“He was fit for the game. This week he had a little bit of a problem with a doctor. Its not clear so far if he’s out for tomorrow.

“We will make the decision today after training. He didn’t train yesterday, that’s true. But that’s all for the moment”

So, for the time being, Coutinho is being assessed. Is the pain excessive? Can he play through it? Is the issue potentially exacerbated by playing a match? Is Phil unavailable because he’s just too busy working on Halloween costumes for the pugs? And wouldn’t that be at least somewhat acceptable?