Jurgen Klopp is confident that Liverpool defender Joe Gomez can make England’s World Cup squad this summer.
Joe Gomez suffered a huge blow ahead of of the World Cup after injuring his ankle whilst on England duty against Holland, a game which England won 1-0. The defender lasted just 10 minutes before being taken off.
There were bad signs initially, which left England and Liverpool fans fearing the worst for the 20-year-old, however, after returning to Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp has since confirmed that Gomez will indeed miss vital fixtures, including the quarter final Champions League games against Manchester City, however, the Reds’ boss is confident of the defender returning to the side before the end of April; a time in which Gomez will have to return to the top of his game immediately if he is likely to make the World Cup team.
On Gomez’ situation, Klopp said;
The good news about Joe Gomez is that it could have been everything.
But from the bad news we could have got the best is it is serious enough to leave him out for a couple of games but not for the rest of the season.
So it’s difficult to give a time schedule for that but we hope he is back in training in three or four weeks. That will give us the option to use him and play.
Meanwhile, Gomez’ team-mate Nathaniel Clyne is very close to making a return for Liverpool, and in timely fashion. Clyne hasn’t made an appearance all season due to a major injury during pre-season. On his return, Klopp said;
Clyney is fine now. That’s good. He played during the international break for the U23s. He’s in good shape so he will be part of the squad for tomorrow at least.
That’s good for us because we cannot have enough players. It’s not easy for players when they play come back from injuries. Clyne played pretty much all the time and then he had this injury and was away for a while.
But now he is back and that’s good, and with the expectations for the England squad I cannot think too much about it. What I can guarantee is we make them all as fit as possible and they can make the choice. Yes, we have three of the most interesting full-backs in our squad. That’s nice for us. But they cannot play altogether, maybe two of them.
