Cody Gakpo is close to a return from injury but will not be available for Liverpool’s trip to Aston Villa, confirms Arne Slot.
The in-form forward picked up a minor injury in the 2-2 draw with Everton and sat out the win over Wolves at the weekend as a result.
There was some hope that Gakpo could recover from the knock in time for the trip to Villa Park in midweek, but Slot has confirmed that he will not be available.
The Reds are still in pretty good shape in terms of injuries, with Joe Gomez the only other absentee due to fitness.
The defender returned from injury in the ill-fated FA Cup trip to Plymouth Argyle and limped out of the 1-0 defeat with a hamstring problem.
Slot says the England international will be out for a number of weeks, although hasn’t ruled Gomez out for the rest of the season.
‘I think both are unavailable for tomorrow,’ Slot told a pre-match press conference on Tuesday morning. ‘Cody is close to being back and Joe will take quite a long time. He’s going to be out for numerous weeks because of a hamstring injury.’
Gomez had been out for the entirety of January through injury and has made just nine Premier League appearances so far this season.
The Reds boss admits suffering another injury problem has been tough to take for the 27-year-old as Liverpool still compete on three fronts, heading into the business end of the season.
‘He tries to do everything to be with the team, he worked really hard to come back and then first game when he came back after two or three minutes we saw him making a sprint and now he’s out for weeks again,’ said Slot.
‘That’s always very hard for a player in every part of the season, let alone the part of the season that everyone’s looking forward to.’
Slot added: ‘He will miss large parts of the end of the season but we expect him to be back. He might need surgery but that’s something we still have to assess.’
Victory at Aston Villa would put Liverpool 10 points clear at the top of the Premier League table after 26 games.
Slot is unsurprisingly not thinking about that prospect, focussing on a tricky test against Unai Emery’s team.
‘I see it as 13 games to be played and the next one is the most important one,’ said the Dutchman.
‘Villa away is like Wolves at home a difficult one. They have a great home record maybe more when they play in the evening. We know it’s going to be a challenge but we know we have a quite okay away record this season.
‘Villa away when you get the fixture list you always know it’s one of the tougher ones we can face.
‘Last season was 3-3. They have a very good manager who always has a very good gameplan. They have brought in some very good players in the January window and qualified top eight in Champions League.
‘We know we will be facing a tough team. Every game for every team is difficult at this stage of the season.’
