Newcastle United news: The latest injury news affecting Arne Slot’s Liverpool side ahead of their Premier League meeting at Anfield.
Arne Slot has confirmed he will have two key players back available for selection against Newcastle United on Saturday night - although five other first-team players will miss the clash against the Magpies.
Liverpool defeated Qarabag in the Champions League on Wednesday night, but did so with Ryan Gravenberch playing in an unnatural centre-back role in the absence of Joe Gomez and Ibrahima Konate. Whilst the former is injured and won’t feature this weekend, Slot revealed on Friday that he would have Konate back in his squad tomorrow after he was given time off for personal reasons.
Slot also confirmed that Curtis Jones was back fit after illness: "Curtis is again available, he was sick, as I said,” Slot told reporters. “He is available.”
Both Jones and Konate featured at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final last March, although the latter was only introduced to the game as a substitute for the former when Liverpool were already trailing 2-0.
A memorable game back in August saw Liverpool triumph 3-2 in the reverse fixture between these sides. Newcastle United recovered from 2-0 down with ten men to level the game before a late Rio Ngumoha strike stole the points for the visitors.
Although the Magpies have triumphed just once at Anfield in the Premier League, with their win at Wembley the only time they have defeated the Reds in any competition in over a decade, Slot is expecting a ‘tough’ game on Saturday night.
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"We have experienced how tough it is to play against Newcastle in the one-and-a-half years I have been here now,” the Dutchman said. “It's always been a very tough contest, a very tough game for us, and for them as well.
"A great game to look forward to because we both had a good result [in the Champions League] during the week. A home game at Anfield is always something to look forward to."
Liverpool injury news v Newcastle United
As mentioned, Liverpool will be without five players for the visit of Newcastle United with Alexander Isak one of those that will not feature this weekend. Isak, who has scored just three goals all season for the Reds, will not face the club he left in controversial circumstances in the summer after sustaining a broken leg last month. On when Liverpool can expect their record signing back, Slot added: “He's not even on the pitch yet.
“I think it's called a walker, he's just out of his walker, so that tells you that he's not on the pitch and not expecting him on the pitch today or tomorrow in terms of his recovery work.”
Elsewhere, Jeremie Frimpong has also been ruled-out of featuring against the Magpies after picking up a muscle injury on Wednesday night. With Conor Bradley set for an extended period on the sidelines also, it is anticipated that Dominik Szoboslai will deputise at right-back on Saturday night.
Giovanni Leoni, another big money signing completed by the Reds in the summer, will also miss out as he recovers from an ACL injury.
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