Joe Gomez has left Liverpool’s pre-season tour with an injury, leaving Arne Slot with just two fit senior centre-backs.
Gomez has an Achilles problem and while Liverpool do not believe it is serious, the Premier League champions sold Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen last month and are yet to replace the England Under-21 international.
For now, Liverpool, who have retained an interest in Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi, only have captain Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate as specialist centre-backs.
Midfielder Ryan Gravenberch and left-back Kostas Tsimikas both played in the centre of defence during Saturday’s 4-2 defeat to AC Milan in Hong Kong.
Gomez missed three months of last season with a hamstring problem and has had an injury-hit Liverpool career.
Head coach Slot hopes the England international will be back soon, saying: “He was, of course, with us for the first part of the week, but he had some Achilles problems.
“We thought it was better to assess it back in England and for him to work on him to come back to the team, probably in more ideal circumstances for him than be part of the group that every time goes out. So we decided to let him go back to England. But we hope and expect to have him back soon.”
Slot also confirmed that striker Darwin Nunez missed the AC Milan game because of injury and not because of the possibility of a move away from Anfield.
