Liverpool have confirmed Trent Alexander-Arnold faces around three weeks out with a knee injury, but Virgil van Dijk is fit to face Fulham in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi final.
Alexander-Arnold suffered the injury in Sunday’s 2-0 FA Cup third round victory over Arsenal, and he is now expected to return in early February.
The Reds will therefore be without the England star when they host Fulham at Anfield on Wednesday, but Van Dijk is in contention to start after recovering from illness which kept him out of the Arsenal game.
“He hyperextended his knee in the game," assistant manager Pep Lijnders said of Alexander-Arnold in a press conference on Tuesday.
“There’s a little tear in the collateral ligament. He will be out probably three weeks. A big blow — he was one of our most important players, creates a lot of dynamics and is always decisive. Even in bad spells, he was the one who put the ball where it would make the difference. We will have to find new dynamics without him.”
Lijnders added: “Virgil ran yesterday [Monday], while we were doing the training with the subs. He did a few jogs and was smiling and looked good. He will be back.”
Dominik Szoboszlai, Thiago Alcantara, Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas have all been sidelined with injuries too, but Lijnders was upbeat about all four players’ potential returns.
“Dom is progressing well on the pitch, running, so he’s not far away," he said. “Robbo is on the third month mark, so he has another scan and if that goes well then we can decide when to have more contact. That’s the tricky thing with this injury.
“Kostas is going as quickly as expected. Robbo and Kostas will be back probably at the end of this month training with the team. Stefan and Thiago will be into next month, but no complications so that is good.”
