Ibrahima Konate will be available for Liverpool’s Champions League showdown with Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night despite the worrying nature of his injury yesterday. The centre-back was forced off at half-time of the 2-1 win over Brighton.
Konate appeared to injure his left arm and made a makeshift sling out of his shirt as he walked off, clearly in agony. The problem occurred in an accidental collision with captain Virgil van Dijk.
The Dutch defender said afterwards: “I think I headed him on the arm. Hopefully it is not too bad, we’ll just have to wait and see. You can be quite ok as a player with an arm injury so hopefully he will be fine.”
And after the Frenchman underwent scans post-match, Liverpool are hopeful Konate can be in the squad to face Leverkusen. That is because they believe his issue is not a fracture or a break but instead cuts and tissue damage.
Konate said on social media: “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. Inshallah.”
It appeared the 25-year-old, who has started every Premier League and Champions League match this season since the opening day, would be set for a spell on the sidelines due to the pain he was in while walking off.
But after being checked over, the Reds are breathing a sigh of relief. They have the best defensive record in the Premier League and Konate has been a massive part of that next to Van Dijk.
And Liverpool need to be at full strength to tackle a hectic fixture schedule over the coming weeks. After Leverkusen they host Aston Villa at Anfield in a Saturday late kick-off while Southampton, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Newcastle and Everton lie in wait after the international break.
Having Konate available will allow Arne Slot to rotate his backline better with Joe Gomez and Jarell Quansah also available to the Dutch coach. Gomez replaced Konate at the break against Brighton and was excellent in a rare appearance in his favoured centre-half role.
The Englishman came close to scoring his first ever Liverpool goal and had his name loudly sung by the Kop. He told LFCTV post-match: “It’s always special. Obviously this is home for me and the club means everything to me.
“But the most important thing, it’s cliche, but we got the win and we keep the momentum heading into a big game in the Champions League.”
Slot said of Gomez: “That says a lot about his mentality today. That also says a lot about his quality; if you don’t play that much and you come in, in a game where your team-mates were outplayed for 45 minutes, that you can you come in and play like this.
“And it also says a lot about his mentality in the recent weeks and months when he didn’t play that much that he is now able, without playing a lot, to play 90 minutes on Wednesday and to bring in a performance like this on Saturday.
“But this is what people told me when I came in – that Joe is a top, top, top professional who will always, no matter what position he’s in, give the best for the team and for himself in the end as well. He got the reward for it today, because I think the fans loved what they saw – I definitely did.”
