PRESS CONFERENCE : Pep Lijnders has provided injury updates on Liverpool players Diogo Jota , Mohamed Salah, Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones Alexander-Arnold  return dates Comfirm ahead of Carabao Cup final game vs Chelsea.  

Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders has offered an injury update including on Mohamed Salah and Darwin Núñez ahead of the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.

Liverpool trio Mohamed Salah, Darwin Núñez and Dominik Szoboszlai are facing a race against time to be ready to be involved in the Carabao Cup final this weekend. But the Reds will give them every chance of being on the field at Wembley.

What’s happened?

Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp left the pre-match media duties to Pep Lijnders again in the Carabao Cup, even though we have now reached the final. And the Dutchman was able to offer the latest injury news on a number of players.

Salah, Núñez and Szoboszlai will all be assessed over the next couple of days. Liverpool still has a couple of training sessions to complete before traveling to London. It remains to be seen whether they can play a proper part in the final.

Lijnders also revealed that Alisson Becker, Curtis Jones and Trent Alexander-Arnold will be back after the March international break, meaning they will miss another seven matches including the visit of Manchester City in the Premier League.

What’s been said?

“Dom, Darwin and Mo, we have to really see,” Lijnders explained during his press conference. “We have two more days. We have two more sessions and at the last minute, we will check if they can be there. Alisson, muscle injury. He will be back after international break. It will take time.

“Curtis [Jones] in and around the international break; Trent [Alexander-Arnold] is after the international break. Jots [Diogo Jota] after as well, but not sure when.

Even with so many injury problems, Liverpool should still be able to bring the trophy back to Merseyside on Sunday. As the players showed midweek, they can still score goals and solve problems even with so many of the squad missing.

It will be a case of digging deep and going again but the FA Cup tie against Southampton that follows on Wednesday can be a chance to rotate and use players like Bobby Clark from the start. In this one, Ibrahima Konaté should come back in and that will help freshen things up. If Szoboszlai, Salah and Núñez are back, that would be huge.

While there is an unprecedented level of injuries at the moment, if Liverpool 2.0 can win its first piece of silverware and then get a few of those stars back in contention again, it could set up a very interesting few months. The injury situation should improve at some point, with Alisson, Jones and Alexander-Arnold expected back after the March international break.