Liverpool\u2019s preparations for the Premier League opener have taken a clear hit, with Andoni Iraola confirming that Joe Gomez will not be ready for the trip to St James\u2019 Park on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n
The center back\u2019s latest problem is understood not to be a major one, but the timeline is still enough to rule him out of the start of the season. Iraola made it plain that there is no realistic chance of a return in time for the opening fixture.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe has a muscle injury,\u201d he confirmed. \u201cI think it was quite clear since he complained straight away, so it will depend how he evolves, but he will be some weeks off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a muscle injury and [with] muscle injuries it is difficult to say one day, but normally I always put myself as one month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it goes very good the injury is a little bit less, if [not] it goes a little more. It\u2019s not massive, it\u2019s a normal muscle injury, [but] I think it\u2019s going to be impossible to have him for the start of the season because we are not so far [away]. It shouldn\u2019t be a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue adds to a defensive shortage that has shadowed Liverpool\u2019s summer. Gomez began preseason as the only senior center back available, with J\u00e9r\u00e9my Jacquet still recovering from a shoulder injury and Giovanni Leoni working back from a serious knee problem.<\/p>\n
Jacquet is expected to be fit for the Newcastle match, which would mark his first competitive appearance for Liverpool and in the Premier League. He is expected to line up alongside Van Dijk, provided the 35-year-old returns from vacation in good condition.<\/p>\n
Any further problem would leave Iraola leaning again on academy options. He has already used Ifeanyi Ndukwe and Mor Talla Ndiaye in preseason, and he acknowledged the shortage directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have seen these games, we are pretty thin in the center back position,\u201d Iraola conceded. \u201cWe still don\u2019t have Virgil. The only real center backs we have right now are Mor and Ify, who are 18 years old, just arrived to the club and they are doing incredibly well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Gomez is set to miss Liverpool\u2019s season opener, leaving Andoni Iraola short at center back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[1910,1908,1909],"class_list":["post-18151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","tag-jeremy-jacquet-injury","tag-joe-gomez-injury","tag-van-dijk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18151","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=18151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}