‘Expected to be out…’ – Injury update on Alexander Isak doesn’t sound great for Liverpool | OneFootball

A fresh injury update on Alexander Isak is set to keep Liverpool fans guessing as to when the Reds’ club-record signing will return to action.

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The 26-year-old has been sidelined for the past two-and-a-half months, having suffered a broken leg in the 2-1 victory at Tottenham Hotspur just before Christmas, a further setback on top of the fragmented start to his season due to fitness issues.

A return date of late March had been cited by reliable sources, and Sweden manager Graham Potter had recently sounded hopeful of potentially having our number 9 available for their World Cup play-off against Ukraine in three weeks’ time.

However, a report from VM Fotboll suggests that Isak is unlikely to recover in time to try and help his country to qualify for the finals in North America this summer.

Isak set to miss World Cup play-offs

It’s stated that the Liverpool striker – along with Spurs duo Lucas Bergvall and Dejan Kulusevski, and possibly goalkeeper Viktor Johansson – are ‘expected to be out’ of the Sweden squad when it is named no later than 12:00 CET on 18 March, eight days before the Ukraine match.

Should Potter’s team win that fixture, they would then host Albania or Poland in a play-off final, with the winners duly qualifying for the World Cup.

Isak will need time to get up to speed once he returns from injury

In the likely event of Isak missing out on the upcoming games for his country, it means that his return to action won’t come any sooner than early April, and even that could be subject to how well he progresses in the final stages of his recovery.

Even when the 26-year-old is cleared for a comeback, it’ll almost certainly take him a few games to fully get up to speed, considering how long he’s been sidelined and the issues that he had in the opening weeks of the season.

Therefore, we shouldn’t burden the striker with an expectation to hit the ground running once he’s back in action, and the likelihood is that he’ll be reintegrated gradually as a substitute before reclaiming a starting berth.

In the meantime, everyone associated with Liverpool will simply be praying that Hugo Ekitike can remain fit and available and can keep up the fine form which has seen him net 16 times already in his debut campaign at Anfield.