Liverpool injury crisis intensifies after Alexander-Arnold ruled out for ‘weeks’

• Vice-captain out with knee injury sustained in FA Cup victory
• Virgil van Dijk back in squad for Carabao tie against Fulham

Liverpool’s lengthy absentee list got a little longer on Tuesday after assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders confirmed that Trent Alexander-Arnold will be sidelined for “a few weeks” with a knee injury.

The club’s vice-captain sustained the setback during Sunday’s 2-0 victory at Arsenal FA Cup, leaving manager Jürgen Klopp with another selection headache before his team’s two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final against Fulham, which gets under way at Anfield on Wednesday night. Lijnders indicated a three-week absence was likely for Alexander-Arnold.

The one bright spot for Klopp is that Virgil van Dijk, who missed the tie in north London due to illness, is back available for the Carabao tie.

Lijnders also offered an update on the status of Dominik Szoboszlai, Andy Robertson, Kostas Tsimikas, Thiago Alcântara and Stefan Bajcetic.

He told Liverpoolfc.com: “First of all, some not-that-good news, Trent hyperextended his knee during the last game. So he has a little tear in the lateral ligament of his knee and he will need time to recover. He had a scan and he will be out for a few weeks, so let’s see after that.

“He will get some rest and then hopefully he can come back to where he was. Because this guy was decisive in all the games and was the one who created constantly for us from deep and gave the team a high level of flexibility. We will really miss him.

“Virgil is back. He did some runs yesterday on the pitch, looked good again. So he will be back in the squad, he recovered well. So it really helped him not to travel to London.

“Dom is progressing well on the pitch, he’s running, so let’s see. Not available for tomorrow. And then we have Robbo, he’s almost at the three-month mark, so he will get checked by the surgeon.

“And if he does that scan and we see everything [so] that we can really progress him, he will go to Dubai for a week to do proper volume sessions, proper sessions, so that will be good for him. Then we see the three-month-mark scan and then we can see how quick he can go into contact again.

“Same for Kostas. Kostas is progressing really well, really quick. So hopefully both of them – Robbo and Kostas – will be back at the end of this month to train with the team.”

On Thiago and Bajcetic, Lijnders continued: “They will not be ready for the end of this month. It will probably be going into the next month to train with us. But both [with] no complications, progressing.”

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