Trent Alexander-Arnold Suffers Significant Knee Injury

Liverpool had been hoping that their exit from the FA Cup would allow them to get the squad healed up ahead of a potentially decisive run of fixtures in the league and Europe. Instead, there’s more injury bad news today for Jürgen Klopp.

This time it’s Trent Alexander-Arnold with a significant injury—or rather with the significance of an injury becoming known after he hurt his knee during warm-up ahead of Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Brighton, as he is now expected to miss three to six weeks.

Scans following the match revealed the player had damaged ligaments in the incident, and while he will not require surgery the best case scenario would see him miss three weeks. That could set up a return against Bournemouth or Bayern Munich.

The worst case scenario would mean he would be out until the end of February, and in addition to the first leg against Bayern that would mean missing games against Manchester United, Watford, and possibly even Everton on March 2nd.

In retrospect, then, the decision by Klopp and the coaching and medical staff to allow Alexander-Arnold to play the full 90 against Brighton—a game where he looked to be carrying a knock—could end up the mistake of the season.

Further complicating matters is the departure of Nathaniel Clyne and that Joe Gomez isn’t expected to train until the last week of January or first week of February. It means Liverpool will be without a senior right back for at least three games.

Midfielder Gini Wijnaldum is also an injury concern—and also with a knee issue—and while he is not expected to be a long-term absence, he is likely to miss the game against Crystal Palace on the weekend.