Liverpool have been dealt a significant blow with both Diogo Jota and Harvey Elliott expected to be sidelined until after next month’s international break.
However, Conor Bradley is in contention for a return as the Reds continue their defence of the League Cup in the fourth round against Brighton on Wednesday evening.
Diogo Jota is nursing an upper body injury sustained during a clash with Tosin Adarabioyo in Liverpool’s 2-1 Premier League victory over Chelsea at Anfield last weekend.
Reds head coach Arne Slot revealed that the Portuguese forward suffered bruising after being dragged to the ground by the defender.
Elliott, on the other hand, has been unavailable since suffering a fractured foot while on international duty with England’s under-21s in early September.
The duo is unlikely to return until the Premier League trip to Southampton on November 24 at the earliest.
As a result, they will also miss the upcoming league match against Brighton at home on Saturday, the Champions League clash with Bayer Leverkusen next Tuesday, and the crucial top-four battle against Aston Villa at Anfield the following weekend.
Asked about whether Diogo Jota will feature before the forthcoming international break, Slot said: “No, it will be after that. Elliott the same.”
Bradley has been sidelined for the last three matches due to an injury sustained while representing Northern Ireland during international duty,
Slot added: “Conor is training with us today so maybe he could be in the squad tomorrow.
“Jota not, Alisson not, Harvey Elliott not.
“Federico (Chiesa) I’m not expecting him to be in the squad tomorrow.”
Chiesa has not played since the last round of the Carabao Cup, where he made his first start in a 5-1 victory against West Ham United on September 25.
For a timescale on Chiesa’s potential return, Slot replied: “That’s always difficult to say because he goes a bit up and down: sometimes he’s there with us, training for a few days, and then he goes out with injury again.
“So, I don’t want to put days or weeks on it because I think we just have to make sure he gets in the best possible shape and don’t put any pressure on him by coming up with dates.”
Meanwhile, Alisson Becker is still recovering from his injury and is not expected to return until at least the final week of November.
With second-choice goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher establishing himself as the regular deputy, Slot faces a decision on whether to give Vítězslav Jaroš his first start.
Jaroš made his debut from the bench in the Premier League win against Crystal Palace earlier this month.
“It’s something that also goes through my head and I haven’t made my decision yet, so we will see tomorrow,” the 46-year-old said.
“It’s also a decision you take [where] you can include your goalkeeper coach with that.
“But in the end I have to make that decision and I also want to hear how fit Caoimhin is at the moment – he played many games.
“Let’s wait and see what decision I make tomorrow.
“I don’t think it’s possible to do the same as we did against West Ham for the simple reason that we got some injuries, so we don’t have maybe enough players to change them all if I wanted that.
“We played against Arsenal on Sunday, yesterday was mostly recovery for everyone, so today when they come in – and they have to come in as we speak – we will find out how they all are and then we have to make a decision on who is going to start.
“But I think if you look at our schedule and the amount of times that we have less days to recover compared to our opponent – that’s not [the case] on Saturday because we play Brighton tomorrow, but Brighton played on Saturday and with [Bayer] Leverkusen it’s the same, they play Friday, we play Saturday – it might be a moment for us to also see some other players.
“But like I said I first have to know how fit everybody is.”
Slot continued: “I think always the next game is the most important.
“You try to pick a team, to select a team, that is capable of winning that game and sometimes that means because they’ve played so many games, you change one or two or a few more players.
“How to prepare them for that is not what you do today or tomorrow, that’s mostly what you’ve done already in pre-season and [in] all the weeks leading up to this schedule.
“Those are the weeks you try to prepare them for these weeks – and you do this by training sessions, of course.”
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