Dominik Szoboszlai will miss at least two games for Liverpool due to a hamstring injury, Jurgen Klopp confirmed ahead of the FA Cup clash with Arsenal.
Szoboszlai was one of three players lined up for a pre-planned substitution during the 4-2 win over Newcastle on New Year’s Day, but his withdrawal came a minute too soon.
According to Klopp, speaking after the victory at Anfield, the Hungary captain “felt [his] hamstring” in the “last situation” before coming off.
Liverpool organised a scan to assess the injury, and in his pre-Arsenal press conference on Thursday, Klopp revealed that Szoboszlai would miss at least the next two games.
“I can confirm it’s not a potential injury, it is an injury. Muscle, hamstring,” he told reporters.
“But now we have to see.
“Dom is very positive, doesn’t have a lot of pain, but we have to wait a little bit.
“So no chance obviously for Sunday, and not for Wednesday, then we will see after that.
“Hopefully he might be back, but we don’t know.
“Besides that, nothing else really happened, the rest were available yesterday and fully fit. We will have to make a choice.”
It should perhaps come as no surprise that Szoboszlai suffered a muscle problem on the turn of the year, given only Mohamed Salah (2,045) has played more minutes than the midfielder so far (1,840).
That comes after a campaign at RB Leipzig that saw him clock more than 3,000 minutes on the pitch for the first time in five seasons.
Liverpool had taken measures to avoid issues in recent weeks, but during the Reds’ busy run of nine games from the start of December to the win over Newcastle, their No. 8 started seven times.
The hope will be that any layoff is neither too long or too costly, with Szoboszlai among those considered able to fill in for Salah during his time at the Africa Cup of Nations.
