Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Trent Alexander-Arnold will miss Saturday's Premier League clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers due to a hamstring injury.
The Reds' vice-captain came off in the 71st minute of his side's 3-0 win over Aston Villa a fortnight ago and was forced to withdraw from the England squad for the recent international break.
Alexander-Arnold was nowhere to be seen in training on Thursday morning either, sparking concern about his availability for the lunchtime trip to Molineux.
Klopp confirmed the worst when addressing the media in his pre-match press conference on Friday, although he affirmed that Alexander-Arnold had avoided a serious injury and should be working with the ball at his feet again next week.
"[There is] no concern. He is not available, we knew that before. He didn't train with the team once yet and will take a little bit," Klopp told reporters when asked about Alexander-Arnold's fitness.
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"It is not the worst hamstring injury you can have but it's a hamstring injury and they barely heal in two weeks -and this one didn't, either. As he is running already, we hope he can start ball work early next week and then we will see and go from there."
Klopp will therefore be without both his captain and vice-captain for Saturday's early kickoff, as Virgil van Dijk has been banned for an extra match for admitting to using insulting and abusive language at Newcastle United last month.
However, Klopp had more reassuring updates to share on Ibrahima Konate and Darwin Nunez, the former of whom has also missed Liverpool's last two games with a thigh problem and could not turn out for France over the past two weeks.
Konate was pictured in training on Thursday, although the same could not be said for Uruguay striker Nunez, whom Marcelo Bielsa revealed was carrying a muscular problem during their World Cup qualifiers.
Klopp is confident that Nunez will be fit to feature at Molineux, though, while Konate has been put through his paces for the past couple of days and could come back into a depleted rearguard, but Thiago Alcantara (hip) remains out.
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"Ibou trained for two days with the team. [Darwin Nunez] I didn't see him yet, but we obviously we had contact and he said it was fine, but we will see that now and make a couple of decisions there. Darwin should be fine. Thiago is running, but that's it," Klopp added.
Konate's return would allow Joe Gomez to feature at right-back in place of Alexander-Arnold, while Joel Matip will continue to deputise for the suspended Van Dijk, but Jarell Quansah is another option to make his first Premier League start if need be.
"[Jarell Quansah] trained the full week with us, so it was obviously then enough time to rest. Stefan had a good camp with the [Spain] U21s, played only a few minutes but [it] helped him anyway. I think that's it," Klopp said of his youngsters.
In addition to Nunez, his fellow South Americans Alisson Becker, Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz are also uncertain for the contest, having arrived back to the UK late from their international commitments.
Klopp led his side to three successive wins before the international break, and the Reds could temporarily go top of the table with all three points against Gary O'Neil's team.
Ben Knapton
