Alexander Isak was left out of Sweden\u2019s World Cup playoff squad, a development that confirmed the cautious stance Liverpool have taken over the striker\u2019s comeback. The Sweden omission followed suggestions from his international manager Graham Potter that the playoffs could represent a potential return window, but Potter\u2019s squad for the clash with Ukraine did not include Isak.<\/p>\n
Potter accepted the limits of the situation. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing we can do about it,\u201d the former Chelsea manager lamented. \u201cIt\u2019s sad to lose players due to injuries, it\u2019s like that for all teams.\u201d He added: \u201cBut we have a very good group, I believe in the squad and am sure that together we can find good solutions and focus on our task.\u201d Sweden can call upon Arsenal\u2019s Viktor Gy\u00f6keres in Isak\u2019s absence and must beat Ukraine and then the winner of Poland\u2019s semifinal with Albania to reach the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s Arne Slot has repeatedly resisted setting a return date for the club\u2019s record signing and was relieved by the international decision. The club remain focused on a Saturday lunchtime trip to Brighton which will be without Isak.<\/p>\n
There was optimism when Isak was seen in an individual session with Liverpool this week, swapping running shoes for boots and getting a feel for the ball. Slot was quick to temper that enthusiasm. \u201cAs long as you don\u2019t train with the team yet, you are not ready to play,\u201d Liverpool\u2019s head coach sternly warned, definitively ruling Isak out of any fixtures until April at the earliest.<\/p>\n
Slot also stressed the graduated nature of the return. “And as we all know, if you\u2019ve done for months only individual sessions, it\u2019s also quite a step up to train with the team, and when you train with the team it\u2019s quite a step up to play at Premier League intensity or Champions League intensity,” he said.<\/p>\n
Those concerns are heightened by a demanding schedule. After Brighton the Reds face Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain in a compact period that includes FA Cup and Champions League quarterfinals, plus a Merseyside derby at Everton\u2019s new home before the end of April. With Hugo Ekitik\u00e9\u2019s minutes limited, having the option of introducing Isak late in matches could still prove valuable once he is fully ready.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Isak omitted from Sweden squad; Liverpool cautious on his return, Slot rules him out until April…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,175,172],"tags":[195,299,1384],"class_list":["post-9161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-alexander-isak","tag-arne-slot","tag-broken-leg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161","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=9161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}