Former Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren has revealed why there have been so many injuries this year with his old club currently facing a crisis.
Jurgen Klopp is facing the very real prospect of facing the rest of the season without Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk with players sidelined by knee injuries.
To make matters worse, Trent Alexander-Arnold limped off during the draw with Manchester City last weekend after pulling a muscle in his calf.
There have been an increase in setbacks this season, with the 78 muscle injuries a 42 percent increase from this stage in the previous campaign.
And with Liverpool bearing the brunt of this surge, Lovren has explained why he thinks the cases continue to rise.
“People wondering why there is so many injuries, it’s simple,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Too many games, impossible to recover, when you know that this year is a weird one (Covid). No proper time off, (personally I had only 8 days off) no proper pre-season and than the crazy schedule!!”
“@ToniKroos is right and many other managers said the same thing over and over again, but nobody listens.
“People who write and decide the schedule of matches should think about this topic.”
Despite their injury woes, Liverpool have been urged not to go out and splash the cash as a quick fix by former Reds midfielder Jamie Redknapp.
He told Sky Sports: “It's a difficult one. I've heard people say that they've got to go out and get a really big signing because Virgil is going to be injured, but if he goes through the right rehab to get fit, he's not going to be too far away from coming back in maybe March or April time as a guess. Normally it's six or seven months, he's an incredibly fit guy and he'll be a good healer.
“You don't want to bring in someone for the sake of it for £40m or £50m because you know you've got someone coming back really quickly. But if you've lost Gomez as well, you're certainly looking to get into the market and try and bring in someone in January or as quickly as you can, be it a loan, be it a signing - but it's not going to be easy to get players in.”
