Liverpool's Oxlade-Chamberlain suffers more injury misfortune
Another knee injury for the former Arsenal midfielder will damage his chance of forcing his way into Klopp’s starting XI with the Reds rumoured to strengthen.
Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be unavailable for the start of Liverpool’s Premier League title defence after suffering a knee injury in training. The midfielder picked up the knock while away on the Reds’ pre-season camp in Austria, the latest of a series of unfortunate injuries for the Englishman.
Speaking to the club website, Klopp said that the injury was similar to the one suffered by Jordan Henderson towards the end of last season but that the length of his recovery is unknown:
“It looks like it is very similar to what Hendo had, which keeps him out for we don’t know for sure exactly how long, but for sure this pre-season he will not make a game, Arsenal for sure not and then we will see. The next game is probably two weeks later, but I don’t know.”
Liverpool face Arsenal in the Community Shield on August 29 and host newly-promoted Leeds United in their first Premier League fixture on September 12. With a shorter pre-season than clubs are used to, Liverpool now face a race against time to get Oxlade-Chamberlain back for the new campaign.
“We have to wait but it is far away from being perfect, of course. It is really hard for him and hard for us, but it is not to change”, said Klopp.
Injury struggles cost Oxlade-Chamberlain a starting spot
Oxlade-Chamberlain is a player well-liked byboth Liverpool and Arsenal fans but he has struggled to hold down a starting berth throughout his career, due in part to persistent injuries. In 2013/14, at the age of 20, he missed 30 games for Arsenal after picking up a knee injury in August and was out for two months of the 2015/16 campaign with to a similar injury.
He moved to Liverpool for a fee of £35 million in 2017 but ruptured his cruciate ligament in April 2018 and missed ten months of football while recovering, returning in time to play a minor role in the Reds’ 2018/19 Champions League triumph.
A number of minor injuries have made it tough for the midfielder to establish himself in the Liverpool midfield and have limited his opportunities to start for the club. In his three season at Anfield he has made just 31 league starts, missing a total of 40 Premier League games due to injury.
The competition for places in the Liverpool midfield could be about to get a lot tougher with the club rumoured to be interested in Bayern Munich midfield Thiago Alcantara. With Jordan Henderson now back in training following the injury sustained against Brighton and Hove Albion, the Spaniard’s arrival could see Oxlade-Chamberlain slip further down the pecking order on Merseyside.