Diogo Jota will not be involved as Liverpool travel to face RB Leipzig on Wednesday night, with Arne Slot admitting his injury is ‘difficult to judge’.
The Portuguese forward suffered an injury on Sunday when Chelsea defender Tosin Adarabioyo landed awkwardly on top of him after a tussle.
The 27-year-old had to be replaced by Darwin Nunez after just 30 minutes of the 2-1 win at Anfield and he has not travelled for the Champions League match in Germany this week.
Jota is not the only absentee, with Alisson Becker, Conor Bradley, Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa all missing the trip.
Slot did not sound too concerned about long-term injury for the Portugal international, but could not confirm when he is likely to play again.
‘He got a knock [on Sunday], like we all saw, when he was trying to go to goal, brought down,’ said the Dutchman of Jota. ‘That was not the biggest problem but I think the other player fell onto him and that hurt him that much that he couldn’t continue to play and he couldn’t come with us for now.
‘It’s difficult to judge at this moment of time to see how long that’s going to take. It’s bruised, so we have to see how long it is going to take.’
Summer signing Chiesa has made just one Premier League appearance so far and Slot explained why Liverpool fans have seen so little of the Italian so far.
‘He missed a complete pre-season, I said this many times, and going to a league where the intensity might even be higher than the Italian league. We just faced the two Italian teams so I can say this now,’ said Slot.
‘So that makes it difficult for him to make the step towards the intensity levels the rest of the team is at at the moment. That has not so much to do with the Italian league or the Premier League, that has more to do with him missing a complete pre-season and that is so difficult for every player – when the games are constantly there – to build them up towards the levels we are at.
‘So, difficult to say [a timeframe] but it’s a big disappointment for him that he is going in and out of the training sessions all the time.’
It has been an excellent start to life at Liverpool for Slot as the Reds sit top of the Premier League thanks to their win over Chelsea taking them to seven victories in eight matches.
The Champions League campaign has also begun well with wins over AC Milan and Bologna and Slot is obviously pleased, but wants even more from his side.
‘You can’t ask for much more with results but there is always room for improvement, we didn’t outplay Chelsea. But the good thing is, if we face a team like Chelsea or Manchester United, you fight for every moment that can be decisive,’ he said.
‘But hopefully we can play a bigger game like Milan or United where we are more dominant. Lot of people made fun of Chelsea investing so much but in my opinion they have done so well and such a strong squad, they will be up there in the upcoming years.’
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