Press conferenceAndoni Iraola offers update on Joe Gomez injury
Andoni Iraola has offered an update on the fitness of Joe Gomez after the defender picked up a muscle injury during the pre-season tour of the USA.
The centre-back was forced off the pitch eight minutes into Liverpool’s victory over Sunderland in Nashville last Saturday.
Speaking during a press conference in Chicago on Thursday morning, Iraola confirmed Gomez is facing a short spell on the sidelines, but it is too early to put an exact timeframe on his return.
The head coach told journalists: “Joe has a muscle injury. I think it was quite clear since he complained straight away, so it will depend how he evolves, but he will be some weeks off.”
Asked for further detail on how long he expects to be without Gomez’s services, Iraola added: “It’s a muscle injury and [with] muscle injuries it is difficult to say one day, but normally I always put myself as one month.
“If it goes very good the injury is a little bit less, if [not] it goes a little more. It’s not massive, it’s a normal muscle injury, [but] I think it’s going to be impossible to have him for the start of the season because we are not so far [away]. It shouldn’t be a lot more.”
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With Gomez and Jeremy Jacquet absent from the squad – and Virgil van Dijk beginning pre-season training back in Liverpool this week following World Cup commitments – Liverpool started Wednesday’s clash with Wrexham in New York with a centre-back pairing of Luke Chambers and Ifeanyi Ndukwe.
Mor Talla Ndiaye was also utilised in the position during the second half of the 1-0 win at Yankee Stadium – and while Iraola acknowledges the squad is ‘pretty thin’ in that area at the moment, he was keen to highlight the positive performances of the youngsters.
“You have seen these games, we are pretty thin in the centre-back position,” he said. “We still don’t have Virgil. The only real centre-backs we have right now are Mor and Ify, that are 18 years old, just arrived to the club and they are doing incredibly well.
“Yesterday Luke Chambers played there, he is not a centre-back but he played really, really well. We have to until we recover some bodies.
“I think Jeremy is ready to go and we will recover Virgil, but I’m happy that playing against Sunderland, against Wrexham, good teams with 18-year-old centre-backs, the team has showed composure and solidity at the back and [that] speaks very well about them.”