Liverpool and Sunderland both have injury concerns ahead of their Premier League clash at Anfield on Wednesday evening, with Arne Slot desperate for another three points following the West Ham win
View 2 ImagesLiverpool are hopeful Jeremie Frimpong can return to action at the weekend(Image: Paul Currie/Shutterstock)
Liverpool will be without three players for Wednesday’s Premier League encounter with Sunderland at Anfield. The Dutch manager provided updates on his squad’s fitness at Tuesday’s press conference.
Conor Bradley has rejoined training, though he’s not quite ready for action yet. Meanwhile, Jeremie Frimpong is edging closer to a comeback after picking up a muscle problem in October.
“Conor got into a training session yesterday for the first time, team training,” Slotconfirmed. “He’s not everything 100 per cent yet so we have to manage that a little bit, so don’t get your hopes up too soon, too fast. The good thing is he does certain things with the group already.
“We expect the same with Jeremie next week. The two of them will come back but, unfortunately, we play a lot of games in the upcoming weeks. Jeremie, at least, will be training with us but he miss out on at least three more games, for example. I hope Conor will be available for Leeds.”
With both players sidelined, Slot has been forced to use Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Joe Gomez at right-back in their previous three fixtures.
The other player ruled out for the match is long-term casualty Giovanni Leoni, who sustained an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury in September and has been sidelined for the remainder of the campaign.
“He is not in a good place because he tore his ACL, which means he will be out around a year,” Slot said at the time. “Being so young and coming to a new country and playing so well in your first game, it’s very hard to take the positives.
“But you try to look at that, and that is that he is still so young, and he has so many years still to go after he recovers.”
View 2 ImagesArne Slot has provided an injury update on two Liverpool players(Image: Getty Images)
Liverpool aren’t alone in dealing with player absences. Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris also shared updates on three of his players ahead of Wednesday evening’s clash (8:15pm kick-off).
Mouhamadou Habib Diarra continues to be out of action as he recovers from groin surgery. Noah Sadiki, on the other hand, is dealing with a facial injury picked up in the weekend victory over Bournemouth, but Le Bris is optimistic about his participation.
“He’s suffered and he still is now,” the French manager commented. “He will be okay for Wednesday but he suffered.”
In other news, Dennis Cirkin and Leo Hjelde are making progress in their recovery, having played for the U21s last week. “They are really close which is good news,” Le Bris added.
“Like Romaine one week before. It’s really important to have everyone connected and in their best shape so they’re ready.”