Liverpool faces Manchester City this weekend with the chance to move 11 points clear of its biggest rival in the Premier League title race. And Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola will both be missing some key players.
Slot confirmed yesterday in his pre-match press conference that Trent Alexander-Arnold is now fit enough to start but there has been no concrete update yet on Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley, who went off injured against Real Madrid. The defensive duo will be hoping to be involved this weekend but Alexander-Arnold's return makes the latter's availability slightly less pressing.
Elsewhere, Alisson Becker, Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas remain out. Federico Chiesa is still working his way up to full fitness and therefore might not be ready to be involved. Even if he is passed fit, the Italian will be among the subs.
Manchester City has been more hampered by injuries at recent times with Rodri the biggest miss. The midfielder is expected to miss the rest of the season with an ACL problem.
But he is not the only reason that Guardiola's team is struggling. Manchester City is shipping goals without scoring many at the other end and squandered a 3-0 lead against Feyenoord in the Champions League. Before that, it lost five matches in a row.
John Stones has an ankle injury, Jeremy Doku is nearing a return from a thigh issue, while Mateo Kovacic and Oscar Bobb are going to be out for a few weeks. And that means between the teams, Liverpool could be missing more players than Manchester City.
Liverpool.com says: Much has been made of the injuries that Manchester City has suffered lately but as Slot said during yesterday's press conference, the reality is that the Reds have been missing key men too— it is just that results haven't suffered so nothing is mentioned. If Liverpool can get a win here, that would be a massive step forward in the Premier League title race.