Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Trent Alexander-Arnold was brought off at half-time in Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Burnley due to a recurring knee injury.
There was surprise when Alexander-Arnold failed to return for the second half at Anfield, with Harvey Elliott replacing him and Curtis Jones moving to right-back.
Elliott proved the game-changer for Liverpool, with assists for Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez to make it 3-1, but concern remained over the vice-captain.
Already confirmed to have been withdrawn as a precaution due to injury – having damaged his knee ligaments a month ago – Klopp gave an update on Alexander-Arnold after full-time.
“Same area in the knee. Nothing really bad but he felt it again,” he told Sky Sports.
“We have to see. We were made aware of it so thought ‘what can we do?’, then Trent said ‘no, it’s fine’.
“But it’s not as he feels it, so we had to be careful.”
In the context of the victory, Klopp added: “It was the perfect afternoon – besides the Trent thing, obviously.”
It could be argued that Alexander-Arnold seemed to have been rushed back due to the ongoing absence of Conor Bradley, which may have had a knock-on effect.
During his pre-match press conference, Klopp revealed that Bradley was likely to rejoin training next week, but as he is currently on compassionate leave, there are no guarantees.
If Alexander-Arnold is out for the trip to Brentford, it may be Joe Gomez who steps in at right-back – though he missed the Burnley game due to illness.
Mo Salah, Alisson, Dominik Szoboszlai, Thiago, Conor Bradley, Joel Matip, Stefan Bajcetic and Ben Doak also missed the clash with various short and long-term issues.
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