Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk picked up a hamstring injury during the club’s recent loss to Brentford and as per the latest reports, the damage could be worse than expected.
The defender was withdrawn at half-time and journalist David Ornstein is now claiming that Van Dijk will be visiting a specialist to fully determine the extent of the injury.
Van Dijk has already had an initial consultation and he will now be seeing a specialist on Wednesday. No time frame has been stated regarding his return but there are fears that he could be out for a considerable amount of time.
After the match, Jurgen Klopp was hopeful that Van Dijk could be back soon but now, that might not be the case. He had said: “Virgil felt a little bit his muscle, but he said he’s fine and he’s a very good judge of these things.
“I didn’t want to take any risk. The physios looked quite happy when I said I didn’t want to take a risk. It’s not an injury, he just felt the intensity.”
If he has done his ACL then it will be a major blow for Liverpool but they are already leaking goals and without their best defender, Klopp’s side could be in all sorts of trouble.
After the loss to the bees, Liverpool are currently sixth on the Premier League table, 16 points behind league leaders Arsenal and if Van Dijk is not around, it will be really hard for them to even finish in the top four.
Apart from VVD, Klopp has Joel Matip, Ibrahima Konate, Joe Gomez and Nat Phillips as the other senior centre-back options but none of them are at the level of the Netherlands international.
To make matters worse, Liverpool will have to face Real Madrid in the Champions League on February 21 and there’s a big chance that the Dutchman is going to be an absentee for this tie at Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp will be praying that this injury is just a minor one and that Van Dijk is back within a few weeks. If not, then we can very well see Liverpool play in the Europa League or even the Conference League next season.
