Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold is likely to be out until after the October international break as he nurses a muscle injury suffered in training this week.
Alexander-Arnold didn’t travel with the rest of the Liverpool squad for the Champions League clash with Porto on Tuesday and is a major doubt to return in time to face Manchester City on Sunday.
With the next international break also quickly approaching, it could therefore be mid-October before the right-back is next in action in a Liverpool shirt.
“It doesn’t look great for the City game,” Jurgen Klopp had said ahead of kick-off in Portugal.
“It’s a muscle thing. We thought he was just a bit tired from the [Brentford] game but it was more and now we have to deal with that.”
In the circumstances, Alexander-Arnold is highly unlikely to be named in the England squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Hungary.
That should allow him the duration of the international break to focus on recovering and building his fitness back to match level. Liverpool’s first game after the international break is a visit to Watford on Saturday 16 October, which gives Alexander-Arnold two weeks to get fit.
James Milner filled in from the start against Porto and enjoyed an excellent first half. He was later replaced by Joe Gomez, who has played limited football since recovering from his own injury layoff last season and was caught cold when Porto grabbed their consolation.
Neco Williams was also on the bench at the Estadio do Dragao.
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Source : 90min