Diogo Jota will not be back before the November international break and Federico Chiesa is struggling to get near match fitness, reveals Liverpool manager Arne Slot.
Jota picked up the problem in the win over Chelsea earlier this month and missed the draw with Arsenal on Sunday as a result.
There was some hope that the Portuguese forward would be back in action as early as this weekend against Brighton in the Premier League, but Slot has ruled that out.
The next international break runs from 11-22 November and asked if Jota could be back before that, Slot told a press conference: ‘No, it will be after that. [Harvey] Elliott the same.’
It is clearly bad news as Jota has been an important player so far this season, but especially tricky for Slot in a very busy spell on the calendar.
The Reds travel to take on Brighton in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night before hosting the Seagulls in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Reds then host their former star Xabi Alonso as he brings his Bayer Leverkusen team to Anfield in the Champions League next Tuesday.
It is not clear whether summer signing Federico Chiesa will be able to feature in any of those contests as he continues to struggle to reach match fitness.
The Italian winger has made one brief Premier League appearance for the Reds since joining from Juventus, while he has also turned out once in the Champions League and made his only start for the club in a Carabao Cup win over West Ham.
The 27-year-old has not been in a match day squad since the win at Wolves on 28 September and Slot could not confirm when Liverpool fans will see him next.
‘He goes a bit up and down,’ said the Reds boss. ‘Sometimes he’s there with us, training for a few days, and then he goes out with injury again. I don’t put any pressure on him by coming up with dates.’
Slot added: ‘First and foremost it is to get him fit again. In pre-season he was in low-intensity sessions as he was only training with three or four players. To go to a high-intensity league is difficult for every player. It hasn’t been perfect yet so we are trying to find the right way to build him up and I’m fully confident that will happen.’
The Dutchman did admit that the fitness problems for two of his forwards is concerning him ahead of a string of big games.
‘We’ve got six forwards and two are injured and with the schedule we have that’s a bit of a worry for me,’ he said.
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