Liverpool defender facing possible 9 months out with serious knee injury

Jürgen Klopp has suffered his first set-back as Liverpool manager with the news Joe Gomez, the England Under-21 worldwide, is believed to have sustained a cruciate knee ligament injury that will make him miss the next six months at least, writes Simon Hughes for the Independent.

The Londoner, a natural centre-back, started the club’s first five league games and kept clean sheets in three of them – although he was an unused substitute in the remaining three.

Gomez received treatment on the pitch before limping off and being replaced by Dominic Iorfa on 80 minutes, which left onlooking Liverpool fans thinking the worst.

Upon returning to Melwood, Liverpool’s training base, Gomez underwent a series of scans and it is feared that he has ruptured his ACL.

U21s boss Gareth Southgate said post-match that he hoped it was nothing serious.

Klopp was surely likely to prefer Alberto Moreno in his first game in charge at Tottenham on Saturday, but the news will come as a huge blow to Gomez, who had settled in excellently since arriving from Charlton.

And the Addicks later took to Twitter to tell Gomez he was in their thoughts. “#ComeBackStronger #cafc”, a post from their official account read.

“We all know the best players of today”.