Arne Slot's nightmare scenario confirmed following Ibrahima Konate update | OneFootball

Liverpool had avoid one thing throughout the October international break and that was to avoid suffering an injury to one of their centre-backs. Only two players in that position went out on duty.

Of course, Joe Gomez is out of favour right now with the England camp, due to his lack of playing time at Liverpool; whereas Ibrahima Konate and Virgil Van Dijk are integral to their countries' success.

Giovanni Leoni is unlikely to feature throughout the remainder of the season, after he tore his ACL in his debut for the Reds last month. As such, we're in a crisis with only three centre-backs available.

Or at least, we were in a crisis. Now, we're going to have to find a new word to describe our situation.

Konate returns to Liverpool following injury concern

According to an update from L'Equipe, Konate has been forced to withdraw from the French squad that was set to travel to Iceland on Monday following the re-emergence of an injury concern.

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In their report, it said: "Liverpool's central defender, who has a thigh injury, will return to his club and will not be travelling to Iceland, like Kylian Mbappe, who has a right ankle injury and whose latest tests are reassuring.

"The two players, who remained in treatment during the first two days of the training camp, had followed a special program."

As such, it appears as though Liverpool will - temporarily at least - be down to two centre-backs for the return of the Premier League next weekend when Manchester United visit Anfield. We knew that Konate wasn't in the best shape following the Chelsea clash, but his situation has now worsened.

Of course, Didier Deschamps is normally pretty careful with his players. Taking unnecessary risks isn't really something that's in his repertoire, but a squad withdrawal suggests a degree of severity.

In order to combat Konate's injury concern, which will need to be assessed thoroughly by the club before any sort of concrete update is published, Arne Slot will have to get creative in defence.

One option might have been to deploy Wataru Endo in Konate's role, although the Japanese midfielder is also out of international duty with an injury, so he's unable to be an emergency replacement. As such, it's going to be all hands on deck to get Joe Gomez up to speed.

At 28 years old, he's more than experienced to step in and deliver assured performances over the next few weeks, and his fitness concerns are currently behind him. He's available and ready to go.

Behind him, however, is no one. Rhys Williams is a player who most fans would have expected to be called into action immediately following Leoni's injury. Now, it's almost inevitable that he'll step up.

And beyond the cult favourite, Slot might need to consider giving a senior debut to an academy prospect, with Amara Nallo, Luke Chambers, Carter Pinnington and Wellity Lucky all impressing.

So there are a few options to consider, although none of them are ideal. It's time to start hoping and praying that Konate is alright, with the withdrawal coming as a precautionary measure. If it's not, then the Reds will have learnt a tough and harsh lesson with regard to their overall squad-planning.