Liverpool may be forced to bring in a striker this winter with Alexander Isak feared to be out for several months.placeholder image
Liverpool may be forced to bring in a striker this winter with Alexander Isak feared to be out for several months. | AFP via Getty Images
Liverpool team news ahead of the Premier League fixture against Nottingham Forest.
Arne Slot has provided a Liverpool fitness update ahead of the trip to Nottingham Forest.
The Reds head to the City Ground on Sunday aiming to keep up the pace in the battle for a Premier League top-five finish. Liverpool are two points adrift of Chelsea and three behind Manchester United in the table.
However, Jeremie Frimpong will be unavailable once again. The Netherlands international continues to recover from a groin issue. Liverpool are hopeful that Frimpong can be back for the visit of West Ham the following week.
Slot said at his pre-match press conference: “Jeremie will not be involved. We hope he will be back next week.”
Meanwhile, Slot gave a major update on Alexander Isak, who is recovering from a broken leg he suffered in a 2-1 win at Tottenham in December.
The striker, signed for a British record fee of £125 million during the summer transfer window, has stepped up to the next stage of his recovery and is back running outside. Slot said: “Alex has been on the pitch, not with his football boots but with his running shoes for the first time this week, so that will take a while as well.
“I’m not sure if I educate you know but before they go on the pitch, it’s not like they are in bed 24 hours a day. They come to the training ground, do their gym work and rehab. It’s nice for him to go on the pitch, it’s nice for us to see him here because there is still enough work to be done but you know as a player, you arrive in the final stages of your rehab. As long as you’re in the gym and not the pitch, that’s not the nicest part.
“The next step is doing work with the ball, which every player likes most. Then the next step is to come into the group and then it takes a while before you’re ready to play. But it’s nice that rehab goes well; that’s a compliment to him and our medical staff.
“[Pre season is] going to be a different period to know but we also expect a different player from the end of the season to the one we had in the first part. That makes complete sense because I’ve said it a hundred times that we have to give him time. If a player has had 4-5 months of only individual training, we cannot expect he is up to speed straight away. So unfrotuntely for him and us, we haven’t used the best Alex yet but this club and our fans will hopefully we the best Alex this season but, for sure, in the upcoming years.
“We all know the moment you go onto the pitch, it doesn’t take 3-4 months anymore but these final stages of rehab are the ones that can make things change. In the gym, you can hardly do too much and at this stages, you have to wait and see if you can take the next part, the next part, the next part. Where are we now half-February? Let’s not put a timescale on it but it’s clear that he will be available, if things go as planned, this season.”
Sweden boss Graham Potter recently revealed that he’s hopeful to have Isak available for their World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final against Ukraine in March. Asked if he could be back next month, Slot replied: “Are you asking me for the Swedish national team? It will be somewhere around there and then it’s always a question if things go really well or he gets a little bit of setback.
“It will be around that period of time; end of March, start of April when he’s hopefully back with the group. When you’re back with the group, that’s not to say you are ready to play let alone start a game of football. Again, he’s been out for months and the last time he was out for months, we all seen it took him a while before he was the player we signed from Newcastle.”
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