Konaté injured against Sparta Prague: will he play against Man City on Sunday?
Liverpool are all but through to the Europa League quarterfinals with a leg to spare after thrashing Sparta Prague 5-1 in the Czech Republic, despite leaving Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah on the bench. However, the Dutchman was forced into action early in the second half after fellow centre-back Ibrahima Konaté suffered an injury, just three days before the top-of-the-table Premier League game against Manchester City.
The Reds cruised into a 3-0 half-time lead thanks to an early penalty from Alexis Mac Allister and a double from Darwin Núñez. But they suffered a double blow just after half-time when Conor Bradley scored an own goal with his first touch of the game, minutes before Konaté went down because of a muscle injury and was replaced by van Dijk.
After the match, manager Jürgen Klopp revealed Konaté had told him, “if I do another sprint, it could be set,” which led to the decision to take him off. The German then claimed the 24-year-old “should be fine, but we don’t know” and said “we will see for Sunday”.
Fellow defender Joe Gomez was also substituted at half-time, although Klopp stated he was also “fine” and that he had been given a rest after having played a lot lately.
Against City, Liverpool will already be without first-choice goalkeeper Alisson, right-back Trent-Alexander Arnold and attacker Diogo Jota, as well as long-term injury victims Joël Matip and Thiago Alcântara.
The good news is that Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai continued their comebacks from their respective fitness issues as substitutes in Prague, with the Hungarian midfielder scoring The Reds’ fifth goal in injury time after Luis Díaz had earlier restored their three-goal lead.
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