Arne Slot has given a clear timetable for Alexander Isak\u2019s comeback, saying he expects the striker to be available for the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals against Paris Saint-Germain next month. Slot tempered immediate expectations, noting the scale of Isak\u2019s layoff and the work required to reach peak condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlex will available [for PSG], yes,\u201d Slot confirmed. \u201cThe question is what you mean around \u2018being ready.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to have the player who played exactly a year ago against us in the Carabao Cup final and was too good for us on that day, then I would tell you I have my doubts about that after seven or eight months out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I expect that I can use him for minutes. Exactly what I get from that I cannot tell you because he hasn\u2019t trained with the team even once.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the PSG tie, Liverpool face an FA Cup quarterfinal against Manchester City. Slot made clear Isak will not be ready for that cup match, and the club had to manage another forward issue after Saturday\u2019s 2\u20131 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion when Hugo Ekitike limped off early.<\/p>\n
\u201cHugo, I think he could play tomorrow if you needed [him] to,\u201d Slot confessed. \u201cIt was a dead leg, as you call it here.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrighton did what we expected. If you face a team that has only had 62 hours of rest, and the first thing you do is make it an intense game, play the first duels, tough duels … nothing wrong with the duels, by the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut unfortunately, it was a collision, and that led to Hugo going out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not helpful if you have to, after two minutes, continue without one of the best strikers that the league has seen in the last three or four years, already not available throughout the whole season, Alexander Isak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot urged patience as Isak rebuilds match fitness but indicated the manager expects to have the forward available for minute-by-minute involvement in the upcoming Champions League tie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slot says Isak should be available for PSG next month; Ekitike’s knock is a dead leg and recoverable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[195,299,1047],"class_list":["post-9271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-alexander-isak","tag-arne-slot","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271","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=9271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}