Massive: James Pearce relays 15-word Liverpool injury update everyone’s been waiting for
Arne Slot has shared some really positive Liverpool injury news ahead of the club’s hosting of Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League following Ibrahima Konate’s injury scare.
The Merseysiders will welcome former midfield icon-turned-manager Xabi Alonso back at Anfield for gameweek 4 in the European competition’s revamped format.
The visitors have secured two wins and a draw thus far and find themselves two points shy of the hosts owing to a perfect start to their 2024/25 campaign in Europe.
Liverpool injury news: Ibrahima Konate available v Bayer Leverkusen
Slot confirmed that Konate will be ‘available to play’ on Tuesday night.
James Pearce relayed the injury update on X (formerly Twitter) after the Frenchman appeared to suffer an ‘elbow or shoulder’ injury during a 2-1 comeback win over Brighton.
Slot on Konate: "He's available to play. There is no issue for him. He's in a good place."
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) November 4, 2024
The former RB Leipzig centre-half had been felled ahead of the half-time break, providing an initially serious concern for Liverpool’s medical department.
Konate had already updated fans on the matter on his personal Instagram account: “Thanks for all the messages of support. My injury isn’t serious thankfully. I had a scan today and it confirmed there is no break. I’ll be ready for the next game.”
Nonetheless, it’s always good to get the final confirmation from the manager ahead of team selection!
Which Liverpool players are out injured for the Leverkusen game?
Alisson Becker, as expected, remains out of contention for Liverpool’s upcoming Champions League fixture.
Meanwhile, Diogo Jota, Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa look set to be sidelined with their issues until after the November international break.
The Italian international, in particular, has been a source of constant frustration for Arne Slot since his summer transfer from Juventus.
“Sometimes he’s there with us, trains a few days, and then goes out for injury again,” the Dutch head coach told reporters.
“I don’t want to put days or weeks on it, because I think we just have to make sure he gets in the best possible shape. I don’t want to put any pressure by coming up with dates.”
It perhaps won’t come as the biggest surprise to those who have been following the 26-year-old’s injury history closely.
Chiesa has missed 87 games for club and country with injury since the 2021/22 campaign (sidelined for 29 games per season on average between 2021/22 – 2023/24). That figure’s greatly skewed by cruciate ligament tear in 2021/22, of course. That said, it’ll be of little comfort to Slot given his summer signing has featured only three times out of 13 games on offer.
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