Andy Robertson is likely to miss the rest of 2023 as he is set to undergo surgery on his injured shoulder.
The Liverpool left-back will sit out Saturday’s Merseyside derby along with November’s trip to champions Manchester City and big December games against Manchester United and Arsenal.
Robertson was injured in Scotland’s 2-0 defeat to Spain and missed their 4-1 loss to France on Tuesday. He is also set to sit out their last two Euro 2024 qualifiers, though Steve Clarke’s side have already booked their place in Germany next summer.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes it is in Robertson’s interest to go under the knife, explaining: “I think we go towards surgery. There is a little chance we could try without but talking to pretty much all experts it looks like surgery will be the best thing, particularly in the long term and that means he is out for a while. In my experience you can train pretty quickly again but not football specific so he will be out for a while.”
Kostas Tsimikas, who signed a new contract in September, is likely to stand in for Robertson. The Greece international has only played four minutes in the Premier League so far this season. Joe Gomez and Luke Chambers are other alternatives Klopp namechecked and he added: “We need options and Kostas is definitely the most experienced but he cannot play all the games from now on.”
Liverpool will be without the suspended Curtis Jones but Diogo Jota is available again after serving a one-match ban for his red card against Tottenham.
Cody Gakpo faces a race against time to be fit after missing the draw with Brighton. The Netherlands forward is back in training.
