Fabinho has effectively been ruled out of Liverpool’s FA Cup final with Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday.
Liverpool kept alive their Premier League title aspirations with a brilliant come-from-behind victory away to Aston Villa on Tuesday night.
However, the Reds lost their powerhouse midfielder to a suspected hamstring injury during the first half.
With Jurgen Klopp’s side facing the Blues this weekend, the German manager offered some hope directly after the game by revealing that the former Monaco player himself was optimistic about his condition.
However, the Liverpool coach has all but ruled Fabinho out of Saturday’s showpiece, but was less definitive about his chances of being available for the Champions League final with Real Madrid in 15 days.
He told the club’s official website: “There’s a good chance that he will be back whenever – not for the weekend but whenever.”
Is Fabinho fit for Chelsea?
Well, according to Klopp himself, the 28-year-old will not be avaliable to face Thomas Tuchel’s troops this weekend.
And if that’s the case, well it’s certainly a horrendous piece of injury news.
Fabinho is a massive player for Liverpool, absolutely vital to how they play and the fact he’ll be missing at Wembley is, as mentioned, terrible news for the Anfield outfit.
It forces Klopp to get creative and figure out the Reds’ best combination of midfielders to cope with the absence, with Jordan Henderson, the captain, set to deputise for his South American teammate in the holding role.
This is not Henderson’s natural position and that right there illustrates the problem; not only is Fabinho not available, but his absence forces someone else to adopt a slightly different role, which has a knock-on effect for everything else.
With the Premier League title effectively gone for Liverpool, this season is now all about the FA Cup and Champions League, but winning the first one without Fabinho will certainly prove tricky.
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