Jurgen Klopp says he doesn’t expect Joe Gomez to play again this season, in the latest defensive blow for Liverpool.
The 23-year-old picked up a serious knee injury back in November, having gone down in training on England duty.
Gomez’s absence has been a huge negative for Liverpool, especially with Virgil van Dijk also sidelined for many months.
Speaking to the press on Friday [via This Is Anfield], Klopp spoke fairly positively about the Englishman, but revealed that he doesn’t think he will be back until 2021/22:
Joe Gomez is actually in a pretty good place, but far away from being back,” the manager told reporters.
So he walks around, looks completely normal, is not yet out on the pitch and running, or even [on the anti-gravity treadmill].
It’s just a really tough injury as well. Will he be available this season? When does the season end? May? He will be close at least, I would say.
I don’t expect it, so I would be positively surprised if he would be back this season.
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In truth, it is no great surprise that Gomez could miss the rest of the campaign, but the main hope is that the defender returns the same player as before, having suffered such a serious problem.
Gomez has had other bad injuries in the past, too, so there is a worry that they could all start to catch up with him eventually.
At, 23, however, he should still have the majority of his career ahead of him, so the hope is that he comes back primed to kick on from next season onwards.
