Liverpool manager Arne Slot has provided an update on the fitness of key players ahead of Sunday’s Community Shield against Crystal Palace. Slot expressed optimism that Virgil van Dijk and Alisson will be available for the fixture, despite current defensive challenges at the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alisson left Liverpool\u2019s Asia tour early due to private reasons, which Slot described as <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“far from ideal.” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, van Dijk has not featured during the summer matches as he recovered from an illness earlier in the week. Slot confirmed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Van Dijk was recovering from illness on Monday and is expected to be fit by Sunday.” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n“Alisson will be back in time as well.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
However, not all defensive concerns have been fully resolved. Slot noted that several players remain sidelined, stating, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Almost all of them are fit or stayed fit. Joe Gomez is not there, Conor Bradley is not there.” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He admitted the situation might be tight for those players to participate at Wembley Stadium this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gomez suffered a minor Achilles injury late in July, leaving Slot with limited options among senior centre backs, relying primarily on van Dijk and Ibrahima Konat\u00e9. Despite this, the manager remains confident, emphasizing that defensive midfielders Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo can fill in if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Liverpool have also been linked with a potential transfer for Crystal Palace defender Marc Gu\u00e9hi, although Newcastle United are competitors for his signature this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right-back Conor Bradley, who has stepped in while Trent Alexander-Arnold recovers and before new signing Jeremie Frimpong fully settles in, is also nursing a minor injury. The club confirmed Bradley faces a race against time to be ready for the Community Shield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slot’s squad looks to manage these injury challenges as they prepare for their first silverware opportunity of the 2025\/26 season against Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool manager Slot expects Van Dijk and Alisson fit for Community Shield despite injury concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[465,175],"tags":[355,299,242],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crystal-palace","category-liverpool","tag-alisson-becker","tag-arne-slot","tag-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1216,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions\/1216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}