Liverpool won comfortably against Brentford, but it came at the cost of two of the Reds’ most in-form players, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota.
The first player to go off was Jones. He landed awkwardly on his ankle after a run-of-the-mill challenge.
After a few minutes on the ground, he tried to continue but couldn’t and Ryan Gravenberch was brought on in his place.
Jurgen Klopp updated us on Jones and Jota, saying: “Mixed emotions because we lost players, which we don’t know how serious it is. It doesn’t look great for either of them.”
He added: “Curtis got a little knock to the lower part above his ankle. We will see what that means but it’s what he felt, wasn’t 100 percent sure. That Curtis cannot play on tells you it must be something because he would’ve played on at all costs.
“Diogo looks probably the worse. I didn’t see it back but I heard the pictures don’t look great as well. We have to see there.”
Journalist Ian Doyle reported that “Jones boarded the team coach from Brentford on crutches with his left foot in a protective boot.”
During the match, the mood turned more positive just a minute or so later, when Jota produced a brilliant header to set Darwin Nunez through on goal.
The Uruguayan finished with a lovely dink over the goalkeeper but, about nine minutes later, the man he had to thank for his goal, Jota, also went down injured.
Another innocuous challenge resulted in Christian Norgaard landing with most of his weight on the outstretched legs of Jota, landing on the forward’s knees.
Like Jones, the Portuguese received treatment before slowly getting to his feet. Quickly, Jota had to sit down again, though, and was forced to leave the pitch on a stretcher.
The Liverpool Echo’s Doyle reported that he left the stadium “on crutches with his left knee in a brace.”
With a match against Luton on Wednesday and the League Cup final next Sunday, Liverpool are missing several key players.
Alisson has a hamstring injury, that we will learn more about in the coming days, but Klopp described as “not cool” on TNT Sports.
Trent Alexander-Arnold will also miss the cup final, as well as other games, with Klopp confirming his knee injury on Friday.
Dominik Szoboszlai is also a doubt for the final and will almost certainly miss the match against Luton.
Who will be fit for the FA Cup fifth round against Southampton, on February 28, and the match against Nottingham Forest, three days later, remains to be seen.
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