It’s fair to say the international break has proved pretty unsuccessful for Liverpool; with four players picking up injuries or illness, one playing at 12,000 feet altitude and 3 having their match moved to the next day.
It began with Fabio Borini‘s broken foot suffered in training for Italy last week, ruling him out until Christmas at the earliest.
More bad news arrived on Tuesday evening as England’s match with Poland was postponed amidst farcical scenes in Warsaw where the roof on the stadium wasn’t closed despite heavy rain being forecast. The match will now go ahead on Wednesday afternoon, meaning that Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson and Jonjo Shelvey will arrive back on Merseyside in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling were also caught up in chaotic scenes as several England Under 21 players were subjected to racial abuse in Serbia. Henderson, the Under 21’s captain said;
“There was a lot of racist abuse out there from the stands and a lot going on after the game, which is hard to take for the players.”
“The players completely condemn what happened. There were also stones, coins and seats getting thrown at us. I didn’t understand why Danny Rose was sent off at the end – I didn’t see he did anything wrong, other than get abused.
“UEFA must deal with this in the right way.”
Defenders Andre Wisdom and Jack Robinson missed the match through injury. Wisdom returned to Liverpool last week after a shoulder injury but should be fit for the weekend visit of Reading.
Reports late on Tuesday night suggest that the news gets worse still for Brendan Rodgers, with goalkeeper Pepe Reina reportedly picking up a muscle injury whilst warming up for Spain. He will have tests back in Liverpool on Wednesday when more news should be available.
Meanwhile, Luis Suarez – the club’s only remaining first-team forward – may have come out of Uruguay’s 4-1 defeat to Bolivia unscathed, but the match was played at the infamous Estadio Hernando Siles in La Paz which is 12,000 feet above sea level. Suarez scored a deflected free-kick late on there.
Elsewhere, Daniel Agger played the full match as Denmark lost 3-1 in Italy, as did Martin Skrtel as Slovakia lost 1-0 to Greece. Joe Allen played the full game for Wales in their 2-0 defeat in Croatia.
The one positive to come from the break is that Samed Yesil scored in all three Under 19’s fixtures for Germany. He now has 32 goals in 33 youth internationals and could be in line for first-team action in the coming weeks following the injury to Borini.
Liverpool face Reading at Anfield on Saturday.
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