Alisson and Ekitike Injury Update

Liverpool’s season has been a trial. If one were inclined to believe in karmic balance or in monkey’s paw tales or even the irony in bargains made with deities, you might see a bright strand of these tropes running right through the narrative being spun about this year.

It’s hard to overlook the extremely meteoric and, let’s be real, slightly unexpected finish that this club had last year as they claimed their second Premier League title in 5 seasons, the first in Arne Slot’s tenure as head coach. Looking now at the fortunes of the club – in a scrappy fight to make it into the Champions league places, for one – it’d be easy to wonder if Liverpool had somehow exhausted all of their good luck last season. That, to use a less superstition-y phrase, this is an extreme regression to the mean owed to Liverpool overshooting their mark so well last season.

But even that regression feels so tough to accept when you consider the bad luck in terms of the squad health. Conor Bradley spent a period nursing an injury and, not too long after returning, sustained a season-ending injury. His main competitor/rotational partner at right-back, Jeremie Frimpong, has also spent some time on the trainer’s table. Alexander Isak looks set to come back after the international break after being out since December.

And on Saturday, Liverpool had to leave Alisson Becker and Mohamed Salah off of the matchday squad set to face Brighton due to injury, with Hugo Ekitike then having to come off mere minutes into the match. To consider the injury woes at Liverpool calamitous would not by hyperbolic at all.

Arne Slot, following the match, gave an update that Alisson’s injury is more serious in that the Brazilian will likely stay in Liverpool during the international break to recover. There was good news, though, as the Dutchman indicated that Hugo Ekitike should be able to get back to football soon as it was just an extreme case of dead leg that caused the striker to limp off of the pitch.

It is now the international break which means a fortnight to get folks recovered and reintegrated into the squad. Here’s hoping the run-in will provide the kind of fitness that may spark the type of results Liverpool need to salvage this difficult season.