Jurgen Klopp’s swansong at Liverpool was going swimmingly before Arsenal dominated them en route to a 3-1 victory. Trent Alexander-Arnold was subbed off before the hour mark as a precaution and further bad news has hit Liverpool now.
Times’ Paul Joyce reports that “TAA” has aggravated his knee injury and is set to miss the first of potentially four finals the Reds can play this season.
So, what is Alexander-Arnold’s injury, and expected return date, and could it have been handled better? Here are all the details-
Trent Alexander-Arnold injury
Liverpool’s first-choice right-back suffered a lateral ligament tear during their FA Cup win over Liverpool on January 7. Ligament injuries are generally extremely risky in terms of reintroduction to the squad and the threat of the issue flaring up again is high.
Thankfully for Liverpool, Conor Bradley came out of nowhere and established himself as a star in the making at the RB position. However, TAA made a comeback earlier than most would have expected.
He played against Norwich in the FA Cup on January 28 and then started against Arsenal on February 4.
Bradley’s rise was stopped due to an unfortunate personal event in his life when his father passed away. He has been on compassionate leave since playing against Chelsea on January 31.
In his absence, Jurgen Klopp was forced to let TAA run the gauntlet and after being withdrawn before the half-hour mark against Arsenal, he started against Burnley five days later.
That is when the worst happened. Alexander-Arnold came off after 45 minutes in that game and Klopp later explained that his studs caught onto the pitch, leading to an aggravation of his ligament injury.
The renewed issue is now expected to cause him to miss out for several weeks, including the Carabao Cup final. Fortunately for Liverpool, Bradley is back in training and will be eager to pay tribute to his father with a repeat of his performance against Chelsea in the league come Wembley time.
While there is a case to be made that Alexander-Arnold’s return to playing could have been smoothed out even further, the reality is that Klopp only played him off the bench and was judiciously ramping up his minutes till a freak accident against Burnley provided a setback.
The coach’s hands were also tied as he was the only natural option at RB in Bradley’s absence. Now, Conor Bradley will have to again cover for his senior teammate’s absence.
Chelsea was the game when he announced himself as the star. Now the stage is set at Wembley for Bradley to repeat those heroics.