· March 13 2025, 13:30
**Newcastle United take on Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday (in case it has somehow escaped your attention). Kick-off is at 4:30pm with the game live on Sky Sports and ITV.**
Liverpool go into the game off the back of a tough week which saw them knocked out of the Champions League after a gruelling two-leg encounter with Paris Saint-Germain which ended on penalties after extra time.
As well as the psychological damage of being dumped out of another cup competition following their FA Cup exit at the hands of Plymouth Argyle, the Reds appeared to pick up a couple of injuries during the match with PSG.
Both Ibrahima Konate and Trent Alexander-Arnold's nights were cut short with Trent's looking the more serious issue.
Trent Alexander-Arnold looked to be in some discomfort on Tuesday night
Ibrahima Konate was fatigued on Tuesday night, but it's not such good news for Trent Alexander-Arnold
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Indeed, Konate's withdrawal was confirmed to be due to fatigue more than any type of injury by Arne Slot, however, it didn't look to be good news for TAA despite Arne Slot trying to play it cool, saying he's not sure whether Trent would make the final on Sunday or not.
However, prominent physiotherapist Shane Ryan - an advanced practice physiotherapist and director of Motherwell Physio has taken to [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@motherwell.physio/video/7480673394820713750?_r=1&_t=ZN-8udzSExQcSM) to share his thoughts on the injury, looking at the incident and explaining the type of injury Trent Alexander-Arnold has likely sustained.
> “The way his foot catches on the ground, it’s really nasty. This kind of mechanism injury is typically the way you get a high ankle sprain which is where you tear the ligaments higher up in your ankle. Specifically, one called your AITFL, which is one called your anterior inferior tibiofibular ligament.“These high ankle sprains are not your typical ankle sprains, with these your usually out for longer. On average, six to eight weeks is normal but it can be a lot longer depending what else you do with it. Hopefully it’s as bad as that and nothing more because sometimes these can lead to fractures and instability of the distiller tailr fibula joint which can cause a whole host of long-term issues.
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> “But hopefully with his medical team, he should be alright hopefully within six to eight weeks.”
Nothing has been officially confirmed about Trent Alexander-Arnold's injury
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While not an official confirmation by anyone who has physically assessed the Liverpool right-back, you'd expect that someone with Shane Ryan's experience would be able to provide a pretty decent informed guess.
Trent Alexander-Arnold's defensive abilities were already highlighted by many as a big weakness for Liverpool, but you have to imagine they're even weaker without him.
While it's obviously not great news for Liverpool, and far be it for us to revel in the pain of another human, but it's hard not to see this as a form of good news for Newcastle.