‘Out for a few weeks’ – Arne Slot confirms gutting injury blow for Liverpool on eve of Inter game | OneFootball

Arne Slot has revealed news of a damaging injury blow for Liverpool on the eve of their Champions League fixture against Inter Milan.

As if the Reds’ awful results this season haven’t left the head coach with enough on his plate, he also now has to contend with the can of worms that Mo Salah has opened with his incendiary comments after the 3-3 draw at Leeds on Saturday.

The 47-year-old unsurprisingly spent a large portion of his pre-match press conference this evening fielding questions about the Egyptian winger, who hasn’t travelled to Italy, but he also explained two other absences from the matchday squad for Tuesday’s San Siro showdown.

Slot reveals Liverpool injury blow

Slot explained that Federico Chiesa won’t feature tomorrow night due to illness, and the Dutchman also confirmed a significant injury blow regarding another Liverpool forward.

The head coach revealed (via Liverpool Echo) that Cody Gakpo incurred a problem in the match at Elland Road on Saturday and will now be ‘out for a few weeks’.

(Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)

Who will step in for Gakpo during awfully-timed injury absence?

Admittedly the Netherlands winger has been well below his best with many of his performances this season – Slot admitted that the 26-year-old ‘struggled’ at times against Sunderland before his half-time withdrawal – but news of his injury comes as a massive blow to Liverpool.

With Chiesa absent tomorrow and amid all the kerfuffle with Salah, the timing of the Dutch forward’s body blow could hardly have been worse for the Reds, whose only natural left-sided attacker for the time being is 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha.

The teenager is a phenomenal talent and has looked fearless during his appearances at senior level so far, but it’d be asking a lot of a player of his first-team inexperience to carry a significant responsibility in our attack while our number 18 is sidelined.

Slot has other options to whom he could turn to fill the void on the left flank if needed – Florian Wirtz moved out to that side during the Sunderland game last week, while Hugo Ekitike has sporadically played there too. Curtis Jones is another alternative who might be asked to plug that gap on occasion.

The ambiguity of ‘a few weeks’ keeps us guessing as to when we can expect Gakpo to return, but we suspect that he won’t feature again in 2025 unless he makes a comparatively swift recovery.

In the meantime, we just have to hope that whoever is tasked with replacing him on the left can step up to the task and make a telling impact for Liverpool.