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Newcastle United and Liverpool injury latest ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
Liverpool have been handed an injury boost ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Newcastle United.
The Reds are in Champions League action tonight (kick-off 8pm) against Paris Saint-Germain as they look to progress into the quarter-finals. Arne Slot’s side are leading 1-0 from the first leg through Harvey Elliott’s late goal.
While Newcastle have lost players ahead of their Wembley showdown, the same can’t be said for Liverpool. They will be without defenders Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez but that is as far as their absentee list goes.
Cody Gakpo has missed the last two matches against PSG and Southampton but is set to return to the squad this evening, as confirmed by Slot in his pre-match press conference.
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The Dutchman said: “Yeah he will be in the squad. He trained today for the first time.”
Gakpo’s return is a big boost to the Reds, with only Mohammed Salah scoring more goals than the 25-year-old this campaign.
Newcastle United injury latest ahead of Carabao Cup final
The Magpies beat West Ham United 1-0 on Monday night to move level on points with fifth-place Manchester City in the Premier League table. But perhaps more importantly, Eddie Howe’s side look to have come through unscathed.
“We're hopeful that we've got a clean bill of health,” Howe told reporters in his post-match press conference. “I don't think you ever quite know until the next day or two, but at the moment I think we look okay.”
Last week was a challenging one for United, losing Anthony Gordon to suspension and Lewis Hall and Sven Botman to longer-term injuries.
On Hall, Howe said: “Yeah, really disappointed for Lewis. Devastated for him, actually, because he had so much to look forward to at this moment of the season. Obviously, the cup final will be a big thing for all the players at the moment.
“Lewis also had possible international experience coming up. And he was just in really good form as well and playing very well. So, yeah, that's a big blow for him, for us.
“The most important thing now is his recovery and making sure he comes back as good as he's been.”
Explaining Botman’s situation, Howe said: With Sven, we've been trying to get him back to full fitness and he was actually very close for the Brighton game,” Howe said on Friday.
“Just the day before, one of the last actions in training, he felt the same problem in his knee. So that meant, again, just sort of a resetting. We still hoped he could come back.
“But then this week, again, he's felt the same discomfort. So it looks like he'll now have to have an operation.
“This has come actually from a knock in one of his first games back. And again, he didn't feel it was a big issue. But I think, without going too technically, he just needs a real small operation just to clear out some fluid, and then he'll be fine again.”
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