Dejan Lovren injured on international duty

The last international break saw three players return to Liverpool with injuries ruling them out for at least a month and now £20 million centre-back Dejan Lovren is the latest to suffer injury for his country.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, August 17, 2014: Liverpool's Dejan Lovren in action against Southampton during the Premier League match at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

No details of the injury have yet been revealed, with only a tweet from the Croatian Football Federation indicating the news, saying “Good luck with the recovery”.

One journalist, Ben Dinnery, claims he has been withdrawn due to an abdominal injury. The timescale on such a problem isn’t known at this stage and will largely depend, obviously, on the severity of such.

Lovren has been an ever-present in Liverpool’s defence since his arrival from Southampton in the summer, ousting Mamadou Sakho as Martin Skrtel’s centre-back partner.

Lovren’s start to his career has been mixed though, with the calamitous challenge to give away a penalty against West Brom on Saturday the latest to blot his copybook. He’s been far from the steadying, leading presence Brendan Rodgers proffered that he would be in pre-season.

Sakho is currently sidelined with an injury he sustained shortly after his pre-Everton walkout and isn’t pencilled in for a return until late October.

That leaves Liverpool with only Skrtel and Kolo Toure as their available centre-backs if Lovren’s injury keeps him out of the QPR game a week on Sunday.

UPDATE:

The Echo’s James Pearce claims it may be a groin injury: