Liverpool were dealt a severe injury blow on Wednesday night as versatile defender Joe Gomez was ruled out for the rest of the season with what BBC Sport described as a “serious knee injury”. Just 24 hours later, things got worse as Danny Ings was struck down by a similar problem.
Gomez’s injury, which was picked up on international duty with England’s Under-21s, was discussed at Jurgen Klopp’s first pre-match press conference on Thursday. Liverpool’s new manager told the media that, having spoken to Gomez, he will wait patiently for the teenager’s return.
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Klopp was quoted by Sky Sports as saying: “The information about young Joe Gomez is not the best. He came back here and I met him for the first time.
“What a wonderful young boy: tall, muscles in the right positions, but he has an injured knee – an ACL.
“We have to make a further diagnosis and we will see when he gets operated on but from this point on he can count the days until he comes back.
“It was not the best day in his life but he is a young guy and I am pretty good at waiting for players, young players especially.
“This is his home and we will do everything to help him come back as soon as possible.”
Klopp seemed to be in a pretty good mood during the press conference, which was building up to Saturday’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur.
He told reporters that he was keen for his players to enjoy their jobs more.
The Express quotes Klopp as saying: “Let’s run and fight and shoot, defend together and attack together like in your best dream of what football looks like.
“I want to see more braveness. I want to see more fun in their eyes. I want to see that they like what they do.”
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Despite Klopp’s happy persona in front of the media, he was sitting on the news that Ings had damaged his knee during his first training session under the German’s control.
Ings was being assessed behind the scenes and, after the press conference, it was revealed that he had, in the words of The Guardian, “suffered a knee injury that will rule him out for the rest of the season and effectively ends the striker’s hopes of playing in Euro 2016”.
The Guardian explain that the former Burnley star twisted his knee and ruptured his cruciate ligaments, making him unavailable for a “minimum of six months”.
Meanwhile, the Liverpool Echo expand on Ings’ injury and confirm that he, like Gomez, damaged his ACL, which will require surgery.
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