Liverpool’s injury hell at centre back has continued with Joel Matip ruled out for the rest of the season an ankle injury.
The Cameroon international was forced off at half-time of the Reds’ 3-1 win at Tottenham last month with ligament damage following a challenge on Son Heung-min.
The 29-year-old underwent tests on Monday and the results were bad news for the reigning Premier League champions.
Speaking about Matip’s fitness, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp confirmed their worst possible fears.
‘Unfortunately, we found out now after everybody looked at it that Joel will be out for the rest of the season,’ said Klopp.
‘But he will be ready for the start of the next pre-season and finally everything will be sorted.’
Liverpool’s No 32 has endured an injury-plagued campaign at Anfield and Klopp has admitted that they could have managed him better.
‘In the end, we have to admit that he probably did that,’ he continued.
‘The situation is just, the season started and Joel was injured when the season started, unfortunately. We should not forget that at Schalke when he was there he played pretty much all the time completely through, he never had something.
‘Then he was unlucky with a [Kalidou] Koulibaly challenge against Napoli in the last second, in the Everton game kind of things, a little bit with the foot here and there. If something started and then the situation is like our situation – that nobody can really wait because of our situation with Virgil [van Dijk] out and Joe [Gomez] out – we always had to try to find the first moment when he is able to play again.
‘It was really unlucky because it was a brilliant challenge he made actually, he saved our life in that moment in the Tottenham game when he won the challenge against Son.
‘But he injured his ankle and played the game on and now is out for the season, so you can imagine how much he tried to stay on the pitch and tried to help us.
‘We will wait for him. He has now the rest of this season, then the summer, then the pre-season to get ready again and he will be ready again.’
Matip is the club’s third senior centre-back now out with a long-term problem following injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez earlier in the season.
While his absence is a major blow to Klopp and Liverpool’s season he has been able to offset this with deadline day arrivals of centre backs Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak. Davies has joined from Preston North End on a long-term deal, while Kabak has completed a loan switch from German outfit Schalke.
