Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch was not involved in training before Wednesday’s Champions League clash against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Gravenberch had been a fitness doubt heading into Sunday’s Anfield derby after feeling a tweak in his hamstring while away with the Netherlands this month. The towering defensive totem shook off that issue to start against United but only lasted a little more than an hour.
It’s incredibly rare to see Arne Slot take Gravenberch off—this was just the second time he had been substituted in a Premier League match since March. The drastic action came after the midfielder appeared to overextend his ankle while tangling with Bryan Mbeumo.
“I took him off because he twisted his ankle,” Slot revealed after the United match. “Is he an injury concern? That’s what we have to wait and see tomorrow, but we have to play [on Wednesday] again.”
Ankle injuries can often look more severe than they actually are, with swelling quick to arrive and dissipate. If Gravenberch has sustained the most minor sprain—grade one—he could recover in a matter of days. Yet, even that optimistic timeline puts pressure on the midfielder to recover for Wednesday’s Champions League trip to Frankfurt, which he now looks likely to miss.
“We have to play three games in seven days, like we had to do after the last international break,” Slot sighed. “There is not a lot of time for players to recover but the good thing is we have more than one good midfielder.”
Liverpool may have several central options, but few provide the same defensive assurance as Gravenberch. This was abundantly clear when the Reds took on Crystal Palace and Bournemouth at the start of the season without their all-action No. 6, as both clubs speared through the heart of a light midfield.
Arne Slot’s Dressing Room Decree to Liverpool
While Gravenberch was icing his ankle in the corner of Liverpool’s dressing room after Sunday’s defeat to Manchester United, Slot supposedly took inspiration from a questionable sporting icon to rally his troops.
Maintaining a veneer of calm, Liverpool’s manager urged his players to adopt the approach taken by disgraced former cyclist Lance Armstrong, who presented a defiantly upbeat outward persona in the face of poor form, per the Daily Mail. The message was “smile at the camera, then power ahead up the Alps.”
Presumably the Armstrong example doesn’t extend to his industrial doping regime which saw him stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Liverpool Star Misses Training to Create More Problems for Arne Slot.
