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What's the news?
In a blow to Liverpool, Alisson Becker has been sidelined for 'the next few weeks' due to a calf injury sustained in the match against Norwich City on Friday.
In case you didn't know...
The former AS Roma goalkeeper signed for Liverpool last summer in a then world-record fee of £66m, which was later broken by Kepa Arrizabalaga's mega move to Chelsea. The Brazilian had a remarkable debut season for The Reds, managing to keep 21 clean sheets in 38 Premier League games. Alisson also kept 6 clean sheets in 13 Champions League games en route to European glory.
Alisson has proved to be a vital part of Liverpool's resurgence in both domestic and European competitions. Before signing Alisson, Liverpool had two talented but error-prone goalkeepers in Loris Karius and Simon Mignolet. Karius was in goal for the 2017/18 Champions League final against Real Madrid and was largely at fault for two of the three goals conceded on that night.
The German's erratic performance in the final prompted Liverpool to splash a massive fee for Alisson. With the Brazilian now sidelined for a few weeks, new goalkeeper Adrian would be Jurgen Klopp's man under the sticks.
Liverpool are also looking to sign Andy Lonergan on a stop-gap loan deal, as back-up to Adrian.
The heart of the matter...
In an update posted on the official website, Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Alisson will be ruled out for 'the next few weeks'.
“[It’s] Not too cool. It’s a calf injury which takes him obviously out for a while,” the boss told Liverpoolfc.com.
“I don’t want to make now [an] exact prognosis on when he will be back but it will not be Wednesday for sure, so now then we have to see. It takes a while, it takes a couple weeks for sure, and we have to see.
“I saw already like ‘six weeks’ and stuff like this, but Ali was not a lot injured in his career so I would like to wait a little bit to see how he develops in that process now, but he is not in for the next few weeks.”
What's next?
Liverpool will take on Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup final on Wednesday in Istanbul.
