Liverpool suffer injury blow as star will miss the start of the season
Liverpool have suffered an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain injury.
Manager Jurgen Klopp confirmed the blow as he spoke to the official club website from Austria, which will keep the midfielder out for an unknown period of time.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been forced to return home and will recover in Liverpool, cutting his preseason short at a vital point in his Anfield career.
He struggled for consistency during 2019/2020, which perhaps isn’t a great surprise considering it’s his first full campaign after that horrific knee injury he picked up against AS Roma in the Champions League.
What should be a concern is the nature of this new blow. Once again, Oxlade-Chamberlain has been ruled out due to his knee, which is similar to the one Jordan Henderson picked up.
The fact that it happened in training is even more annoying.
"Klopp said: “(It was) really unfortunate. An unfortunate situation as well; it was a challenge.”"
Klopp ruled the midfielder out of the community shield clash against Arsenal and said he couldn’t put an accurate timeline on his return to football – which will gives players like Naby Keita or even Marko Grujic the chance to establish themselves ahead of him in the pecking order.
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"“For sure this preseason he will not make a game, Arsenal for sure not and then we will see. The next game is probably two weeks later, but I don’t know.“We have to wait but it is far away from being perfect, of course. It is really hard for him and hard for us, but it is not to change.”"
Hopefully the Ox won’t be kept away from the fold for too long. There’s a special player in there somewhere, but he just can’t shake the perception that he’s never fully lived up to that talent.
On his day, the former Southampton youngster can provide a dynamic, bursting energy that few in the Liverpool squad can match; as well as a terrific ability to score from range.
We saw that in moments last season, particularly during the Champions League when he tormented a particularly timid Genk defence against whom he scored three goals in two games.
He also scored in back-to-back Premier League games against West Ham and Southampton.
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There is undoubtedly a talent in there that needs to be unlocked and it’s with great sadness and frustration that we learn of another knee injury for Oxlade-Chamberlain.