Liverpool star left-back Andy Robertson hasn’t trained for 18 days as he’s been battling a persistent ankle problem.
The Echo reported that Robertson has been playing through the pain barrier – but that meant a specialist routine in between games that meant he did nothing.
If you put his performances into that context it makes them even more startling. The left-back hasn’t been working at Melwood but still managed to maintain his extraordinary fitness levels and put in match winning performances.
The Liverpool staff have been careful with his workload recently as they forced him to watch the Carabao Cup win over Arsenal from the stands and only gave him the last 15 minutes in the Champions League victory against Genk.
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“The fact my ankle has swollen up again has made it easier to miss these games. For the last two and a half weeks I’ve not trained at all for Liverpool,” the Echo reported that he said.
Our first thought should be one of concern. Andy Robertson pulled out of the Scotland squad because of his problematic ankle and is now facing a race against time to make it for the Crystal Palace game.
Robbo is a huge part of Jurgen Klopp’s masterplan and without him everything seems a little more difficult. Yeah, James Milner is a good fill-in at left-back, but that’s not the position he wants to play and he can’t do the same things as Robertson.
Joe Gomez may have started his career under Brendan Rodgers on the flank but that’s definitely not his best position either. But as it stands, those are the only two realistic options Klopp will have for the weekend.
No doubt the injury picture will become clearer as the days tick down towards Saturday, but everyone will need to cross their fingers and toes and hope the main man can recover from that problem.
Not training for two-and-a-half weeks doesn’t really indicate a player who is taking to the field without pain, and long-term thinking must dominate the picture here rather than sacrificing Andy Robertson for short-term gain.