Joe Gomez was withdrawn during the first half
Arne Slot is hopeful that Joe Gomez has avoided a serious injury after he was subbed off during Liverpool’s shock FA Cup defeat to Plymouth Argyle.
Captaining his side in his first game back since late December, Gomez lasted just 11 minutes before having to make way at Home Park.
The centre-back quickly went down to the turf after an early sprint, indicating that he had some discomfort with his hamstring.
The 27-year-old made way for Isaac Mabaya, with things going from bad to worse for Slot’s side as Ryan Hardie’s second-half penalty secured a shock win for Plymouth who currently sit bottom of the Championship.
After the game, Slot revealed he was unsure whether Gomez had re-injured the same hamstring which had ruled him out for the previous ten games but was hopeful that the defender’s new injury was not as serious.
‘I am not too sure. I am not too sure if it was the same leg, but I haven’t had time to ask him,’ Slot said.
‘It was clear, I think we all know which moment he felt a bit insecure about [it] because he didn’t sprint back fully.
‘Then he said, ‘I am not 100 per cent sure and I am afraid if I make one extra sprint things will go wrong.’
‘It’s not torn I assume, but it didn’t feel good for him. That was a bit of a blow because Curtis Jones was on the bench, but he came to me this morning and said, ‘I don’t think I am fully recovered yet’ as well after the training session of yesterday.
‘That all of a sudden led to the fact we were with a few more youngsters on the pitch than was the idea before the game, but still there was enough quality on the pitch to get a better result than this.’
Arne Slot was unsure about the severity of Gomez’s injury
Liverpool opted to leave several key players out of the matchday squad entirely, including Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, but Slot said he did not regret the decision to rotate so heavily.
‘No because you never know what would have happened if we’d had played with our starters over here,’ he said.
‘During this season we’ve seen a few times already that it’s a game plan and style that is difficult for our starters but also for the ones who played today.
‘It’s constantly long balls, second balls, long balls, second balls so it’s dfifficult for every team.
‘Today also showed why we played with these players today because they need game rhythm and for them to be ready in the upcoming months.
‘They need game time and you saw today that some of these players need games like this to be ready for the last three months of the season.’
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