Liverpool begin the new campaign with three players sidelined after losing the Community Shield to Crystal Palace on penalties at Wembley. The champions were pegged back twice during the match and ultimately went down in the shootout. Mohamed Salah skyed his spot-kick before Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott were both kept out by Dean Henderson.<\/p>\n
Arne Slot was left unhappy with the result and the two goals conceded, a continuation of a porous pre-season defence, but he could take comfort that most of his squad returned from London uninjured. The immediate question now is whether any of the three absentees can be restored for the league opener against Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday night.<\/p>\n
RYAN GRAVENBERCH<\/p>\n
Gravenberch was a surprise omission from the trip after being left out of the Community Shield squad. Slot revealed to TNT Sports before the game: \u201cRyan Gravenberch became a father yesterday,\u201d which explained the decision to leave him at home. The midfielder is also suspended for one match after being sent off in the final game of last season against Crystal Palace, a suspension that carries into the new campaign. He will be eligible to face Newcastle next week. Potential return date: Newcastle (a) on Monday, August 25, 2025.<\/p>\n
JOE GOMEZ<\/p>\n
Gomez returned early from the pre-season tour of Asia with a calf problem. Slot said on tour that he hoped to have the defender back quickly. \u201cUnfortunately, he has a minor injury at the moment, but he will be back with the team very soon,\u201d Slot said before the Community Shield. In his absence Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk remain the only recognised senior options in the heart of defence. Potential return date: Arsenal (h) on Sunday, August 31, 2025.<\/p>\n
CONOR BRADLEY<\/p>\n
Bradley, touted to be Trent Alexander-Arnold\u2019s long-term successor, missed the trip to Wembley after an unspecified injury. Slot said that it would be \u201ctight\u201d for him to be involved in the Community Shield, and Bradley also missed the double-header against Athletic Bilbao at Anfield. Slot\u2019s comments suggest a return could come in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three Liverpool players miss Wembley; fitness doubts ahead of Bournemouth opener at Anfield on Friday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[299,219,242],"class_list":["post-1528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","tag-arne-slot","tag-harvey-elliott","tag-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528","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=1528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1531,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions\/1531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}