‘That is a blow’ – David Lynch relays fresh Liverpool injury concern ahead of PSG clash | OneFootball

Liverpool appear to have been hit by a fresh injury concern ahead of their Champions League clash against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night.

The Reds trained in Kirkby this lunchtime prior to flying out to the French capital later in the afternoon, although one player was conspicuous by his absence from the team session.

Despite being seen in photos uploaded by the club showing the squad arriving at the AXA Training Centre, there was no sign of Cody Gakpo on the pitch with his teammates, prompting fears of a recurrence of the foot/ankle injury which sidelined him for a couple of matches last month.

Has Gakpo suffered another injury setback?

David Lynch took to his YouTube channel after the training session to report on the Dutchman’s non-involvement, explaining that he may have been in Kirkby for rehabilitation on a possible muscle issue.

The journalist said: “Unfortunately we did get a bit of a surprise in that there was some big news that Cody Gakpo was not involved in the training session today.

“It’s an interesting one. Liverpool put some pictures out on social media this morning showing the players arriving at the training ground to begin preparations for the game, and Cody Gakpo was part of that.

“It makes you wonder if there’s a recurrence of that foot issue. Is that still not right, because it was quite a bang he got on it. It was described as a bad knock by Arne Slot, so maybe he just pushed himself [to come] back a little bit soon and he’s had a recurrence. We’ll have to see.

“Having not been involved in this final session, I’d be really surprised if he does fly out. You have to say that is a blow for Liverpool that he’s very unlikely to be involved in this game. To lose a player like that is a blow, but Liverpool at least have options.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Other Liverpool forwards may now need to step up

As Lynch says, to lose Gakpo on the eve of the away leg against PSG would be an unwelcome setback for Liverpool ahead of what’s sure to be a tough tie against the runaway Ligue 1 leaders, who’ve won their last 10 matches in all competitions.

The 25-year-old is the Reds’ second highest scorer this season with 16 goals and netted three times in the league phase of his tournament (Transfermarkt).

He appeared to be out of the woods injury-wise when coming off the bench against Manchester City and Newcastle last week, but now it seems that he may have suffered a recurrence of the foot problem which sidelined him for the games against Wolves and Aston Villa.

If Gakpo missed training today, it’s unlikely that he’ll be involved tomorrow night, so Luis Diaz will probably start on the left flank with either Darwin Nunez or Diogo Jota through the middle.

Although the Reds’ number 18 will be a big miss against PSG if he’s unavailable, at least Arne Slot can take solace from having such formidable attacking depth at his disposal.

Fingers crossed that we see the Netherlands forward back in action sooner rather than later!