The season hasn’t even started yet and Liverpool have already suffered their first injury blow.
Adam Lallana has picked up a thigh injury during the first half of the Audi Cup final against Atletico Madrid in Munich on Wednesday night and has been ruled out for at least two months.
The 29-year-old midfielder will miss the beginning of the Premier League campaign including key games against Man City and Arsenal, both legs of the Champions League play-off against Hoffenheim and England’s next two World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia at the beginning of September.
It comes as a huge blow for manager Jurgen Klopp as he seeks to hit the ground running next week in a bid to improve on last season’s fourth-placed finish in the Premier League and also have a good run in the Champions League after missing out for the last two seasons.
“This is certainly not news we would have wanted,” Klopp told the offocial site. “Unfortunately, the damage is such that it will likely mean Adam is out for a couple of months not weeks, so I think we can pretty much rule him out of August and September.
“Beyond that we will monitor and wait and see. He is a boy with a world-class attitude to everything professionally and he has always come back in good time from injury setbacks since I have been here, so we will see.”