Joe Gomez could play again this season but faces at least six months on the sidelines after undergoing successful surgery on his knee injury.
Scans on the Liverpool defender's left knee revealed no ligament damage as first feared, though he is likely to miss a significant part of the 2020-21 campaign.
The 23-year-old defender feared that he may miss next summer's European Championship after suffering the injury while training with England at St George’s Park on Wednesday afternoon.
Gomez could still return in time for next summer’s tournament and Liverpool have refused to rule him out for the rest of the season, though the injury still represents a substantial blow to Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The injury has plunged the Premier League champions into a defensive crisis, with Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and stand-in centre-back Fabinho also currently unavailable.
Read more: Joe Gomez injury: What are Liverpool’s centre-back options as defender’s injury fears confirmed?
Joel Matip only recently returned from injury himself but is now Jurgen Klopp's only fit, senior centre-back, with the inexperienced pair of Rhys Williams and Nathaniel Phillips in reserve.
Klopp spoke out in the interests of player welfare following Alexander-Arnold’s calf injury in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City at the Etihad, criticsing the Premier League for their fixture scheduling and substitution rules.
The Liverpool manager was in favour of the top flight retaining the five subs per-game rule which was introduced last season during Project Restart, only to be shelved for the new campaign.
Gareth Southgate, the England manager, insisted on Wednesday that the national team set-up had been careful with Gomez and other players who are playing three games a week at club level due to European commitments.
“With Joe, we knew the load he has had in the last six weeks or so,” he said. “We gave him and the other players who had been in European matches who played Sunday, an extra day's recovery. Yet still something like this has happened."
Southgate said that while debates over extra substitutions were valid, authorities and organisers should have taken the opportunity presented by the pandemic to devise a schedule which supported player welfare.
"There was an opportunity this year to think differently. The pandemic has thrown up all sorts of difficulties for people. But everybody has tried to cram the programme into a smaller period.
"We are going to see injuries. It's a desperately sad situation. When you see the impact on an individual, it hits home even more.
"A lot of these discussions should have happened in the summer. We could have adjusted the calendar in its entirety and all worked together. But people haven't done that."
