Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Liverpool fans’ worst nightmares by confirming Diogo Jota will be injured for ‘months’, but he couldn’t state exactly how long.
Jota’s absence will impact Liverpool during the Premier League title run-in and their quest win four trophies.
The Portuguese forward was forced off in the first half of Liverpool’s 4-1 win at Brentford over the weekend, as was Curtis Jones.
Klopp was speaking ahead of Liverpool’s match against Luton on Wednesday and the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday.
He said: ‘With Diogo it will take about months (not weeks). I couldn’t say a timeframe even if I wanted to. That is just how it is. When you don’t have these players it makes no sense.
‘If you see the line-up early enough you will see who did and who didn’t make it. That’s it. Trent, Dom are on their way back not in team training yet, so not available yet. That is the situation. What I said after the game if we have 11 we will go for it and that is the idea.
‘If you use the boys you know what you can do. We don’t see it like that [with injuries] – when we had both left-backs out we found a solution that worked.
‘We didn’t have a No.6 before the season started but we sorted that. As long as we have a training session [before games] it is fine because everyone is good on the ball.’
Klopp went as far as saying that figuring out solutions to an injury crisis was something enjoyable – an unorthodox take on their situation at a critical time.
He said: ‘Yes, we had to be flexible but it was [more] good fun than a problem to be honest. We have a situation now where it’d be better when we had no injuries but at the moment when you have the news, you just deal with it and we have no excuse.
‘We will go for it. There are 5,000 ways to win a game. We just have to find one. Especially at home where we generate a dynamic where some players can grow above themselves and be the best version of themselves.’
He returned from a muscle injury in December in blistering form and has scored 14 goals in all competitions this season with razor-sharp finishing.
