Troy Deeney has questioned on Drive on talkSPORT (11/11/20 at 4:15 pm) why Liverpool allowed Joe Gomez to go on international duty amid their ‘current crisis’.
As reported by BBC Sport, Liverpool defender Gomez has suffered an injury in England training ahead of their friendly against the Republic of Ireland on Thursday.
With Virgil van Dijk’s long-term injury, this is the last thing Jurgen Klopp would have wanted to hear and it massively dents their chances of winning the Premier League title if his injury is serious.
Watford striker Deeney acknowledged that the ‘meaningless’ friendly against ROI tomorrow doesn’t help the cause, but he questioned why Liverpool didn’t pull him out beforehand.
“I think when you say meaningless [friendly] you are looking towards England as an establishment and why are we playing these international friendlies right now?
“It’s difficult because we always want the national team to do so well – I just think with the short turnaround with pre-season, the number of injuries Liverpool already have, it could have been one that he missed out. He could have easily not gone. That would have helped everybody else.
On Gomez playing a lot for Liverpool: “I can understand that point you are trying to make. I think I would be more hesitant to say why have Liverpool requested that he doesn’t go? As you said, it’s a friendly. There is not a great deal of any importance of it.
“I just don’t understand why Liverpool didn’t say ‘no, we will refuse you to go to this one because of the current crisis’ and I don’t think anyone could have complained.”
Liverpool supporters will be hoping that Gomez’s injury is just a scare and nothing serious because if it’s not then it will deflate the mood across Anfield.
Even though Liverpool lost Van Dijk through injury, they have remained unbeaten since then and kept three clean sheets in the Champions League.
Youngsters such as Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips have stepped up, but the key thing is that they have had the experience of Gomez beside them.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
