Jurgen Klopp has provided an update of sorts on Alisson‘s calf injury, but despite ruling the Liverpool No. 1 out for the “next few weeks” his layoff remains unclear.
The 26-year-old was helped off the field towards the end of the first half as the Reds won 4-1 at home to Norwich on the Premier League‘s opening night.
He was replaced by Adrian, who was unfortunate not to keep a clean sheet as Teemu Pukki netted a consolation after the break, but the focus after the game was on Alisson‘s fitness.
Klopp immediately confirmed he would be unavailable for the UEFA Super Cup clash with Chelsea on Wednesday night, but fans were left to wait for further tests to determine the extent of his injury.
The manager has now told the club’s official website he is not expecting Alisson to be part of his squad “for the next few weeks.”
But despite acknowledging rumours of a six-week layoff, Klopp added that he “would like to wait a little bit” to see how the ‘keeper recovers, with no official timeframe offered.
“[It’s] not too cool. It’s a calf injury which takes him obviously out for a while,” he said.
“I don’t want to make now [an] exact prognosis on when he will be back but it will not tomorrow for sure, so now then we have to see.
“It takes a while, it takes a couple weeks for sure, and we have to see.
“I saw already like ‘six weeks’ and stuff like this, but Ali was not a lot injured in his career.
“So I would like to wait a little bit to see how he develops in that process now, but he is not in for the next few weeks.”
There are two ways to interpret this latest update: firstly, Liverpool could be optimistic that Alisson will recover swiftly; or secondly, it may be that there remain issues to clear up first.
It had been suggested that, along with the calf injury mentioned, the Brazilian had suffered damage to his Achilles, which would likely require a longer period out.
The hope is that Klopp is simply being cautious, particularly given his overly optimistic approach with injuries to the likes of Adam Lallana, Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold has backfired in the past.
Either way, if Alisson does miss the “next few weeks,” his return will not come until at least after the September international break.
