I do not know how often I have written the word injury since taking over this Liverpool site. There always seems to be some injury when it comes to Liverpool in these last few months. It’s always some injury or the other. A lot of it is down to bad luck, but some of it is also just poor squad planning.
We won’t get into that, though, because this is good news. Good news! Liverpool finally have players that are actually returning from injury. Last week it was Virgil Van Dijk and Diogo Jota. This week, it is Ibrahima Konate.
Konate is a man that was sorely missed in the game vs Real Madrid. I mean, even if he was there, I don’t think Liverpool would’ve managed to win, but the scoreline might not have been this bad.
According to reports as well as Jurgen himself, Konate is now edging towards a return to first team action. According to Klopp, it’s tough to see him in action against Crystal Palace, even though he has fully recovered, but he is close to a return. According to a report from James Pearce, Klopp will make a final call on whether Konate plays against Palace or not.
To be honest, Konate probably is not going to play. There is no point risking his injury, even though he has fully recovered. He’s only had two full training sessions so far, so I think it is best to sit him out till the next game.
Konate’s return in the context of the race for the top four spots is massively important, because the team has been struggling a lot, they have been leaking goals left right and centre, and whenever Konate is there, which is not as often as you would expect, you’d expect the defense to be a bit sturdier. That’s all. That’s the least you would expect from Konate’s return to the lineup.
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It remains to be seen whether Konate plays against Palace, but if it is not Palace, it will be the next team.