Liverpool will be without new signing Jeremie Frimpong until after the next international break as a result of a hamstring injury. Conor Bradley is in contention to replace Frimpong having recovered from a hamstring injury of his own.
Frimpong suffered the setback during the Premier League opener against Bournemouth, when he was replaced on the hour mark, and head coach Arne Slot revealed the injury could have been worse but for the intervention of Liverpool’s medical team.
The £29.5m signing from Bayer Leverkusen is likely to be out for four weeks but, with the first international break of the season from 1-9 September, the only games he should miss for Liverpool are Monday’s visit to Newcastle and the home match against Arsenal next Sunday.
Slot said: “Conor trained for a few minutes with us today for the first time. The medical team were completely right about Jeremie and to tell me that I had to take him off because he is out until the end of the international break.
“I think I got criticised a bit for taking him off. It had nothing to do with how he played but we felt he had an issue with his hamstring and by we, I mean the medical staff. They were completely right. It was a good call to take him off otherwise he maybe would have been out for longer. We expect to have him back after the international break.”
Bradley is not guaranteed to start at St James’ Park given he has been out for several weeks while Joe Gomez, another potential replacement for Frimpong, has just recovered from an achilles injury.
“At the moment we only have two injuries but unfortunately it is two in the same position,” Slot added. “The good thing is we have other players that can play there. Wataru [Endo] played there for a few minutes, Dominik Szoboszlai has already played there. There are other options we can explore. Joe Gomez is definitely one of them but for him to already play 20 minutes [against Bournemouth] that is already quite a lot.
skip past newsletter promotion
Sign up to Football Daily
Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
“I wouldn’t say [Gomez] has had a setback but he wasn’t able to train three days in a row completely with the team, which is completely normal when you have been out for so long and all of a sudden the manager needs you for 20 minutes. He is training with the team, so let’s see where he is on Monday and if he can be involved with the team or even start. But there are other options.”
