Ibrahima Konate has been sent back from international duty due to injury worries. The defender was benched against Azerbaijan and will not be travelling to Iceland. The Liverpool defender arrived injured at Clairefontaine and hasn’t been able to recover in time to play a part for Les Bleus in World Cup qualifying. Konate was forced off the pitch in the Reds’ last Premier League match against Chelsea.
Didier Deschamps’ team are set to fly to Reykjavik on Saturday evening ahead of their match against Iceland on Monday. The decision has been made for Konate not to accompany the team on that journey as he continues his recovery. The former RB Leipzig player had been following an individual treatment plan for a thigh injury. Now, the question is whether he will be fit for Liverpool’s match with Manchester United next weekend.
The Frenchman walked straight down the tunnel early in the second half of Liverpool’s defeat against Chelsea, leaving Arne Slot with a lack of central defenders. Curtis Jones replaced the 26-year-old, with Ryan Gravenberch moving to join Virgil van Dijk in the backline.
Slot had alarm bells ringing over the knock but was hopeful Konate had been substituted quickly enough to avoid a serious issue.
“I don’t know if it is a big injury, but what I do know is he limped a little bit and when I asked him he said he felt his quad a little bit,” said the Dutchman. “Then, for me, all alarm bells go off because in another sprint you never know if that is going to go good.
“It was also already a substitution I had in mind, maybe for a few minutes or a little bit later, because the right centre-back had a lot of ball possession and we needed to create from that position. We all know Ryan [Gravenberch] is quite good in that.
“It might be OK that he went off early enough but it was clear I had to take him off because he was limping.”
Konate was considered sufficiently fit to link up with his international squad, though it seems he continues to battle the same issue.
Joe Gomez remains a potential stand-in, yet he wasn’t selected from the substitutes’ bench against Chelsea following his own return from injury.
