Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson is expected to miss the rest of September in the latest of the club's midfield injury blows, while the Reds have added seven of their younger stars to their Champions League squad.
Henderson limped off in the second half of last week's 2-1 victory over Newcastle United in the Premier League with a hamstring complaint, an injury which prompted the Reds to make a transfer deadline day move for Brazilian midfielder Arthur Melo.
After taking their time to examine Henderson, the Reds now expect him to be out action until the start of October, ensuring that, having already missed last Saturday's Merseyside derby, he will also sit out the club's next four games across the Champions League and Premier League.
Liverpool start their European campaign at away at Napoli on Wednesday, before hosting Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday, Ajax in the Champions League next week and then heading to Chelsea a week on Sunday.
There will then be an international break, with Henderson now unlikely to link up with England.
Henderson's absence comes as Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are also sidelined, with Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain not even included in Liverpool's Champions League squad for the group stages.
Thiago is believed to closest to a return and could feature in Naples, while Curtis Jones was on the bench against Newcastle but then wasn't against Everton.
The academy product is one of seven players added to Liverpool's Champions League squad as part of Player List B, with Harvey Elliott also included.
As per UEFA's rules, a player qualifies for List B: "if he is born on or after 1 January 2001 and since his 15th birthday has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years, or a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year.
"Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption."
Elliott, 19, has now qualified for that list having been at Liverpool since 2019, including one loan spell at Blackburn, while other young talents such as Fabio Carvalho, signed from Fulham this year, Calvin Ramsay, who arrived from Aberdeen in the summer, and Stefan Bajcetic, who arrived from Celta Vigo in 2020, have to be included on List A with the rest of the first-team squad.
As well as Jones and Elliott, goalkeeper Harvey Davies, defenders Isaac Mabaya and Luke Chambers, midfielder Dominic Corness and forward Melkamu Frauendorf have also been added to List B.
All bar Corness were seen to some degree in Liverpool's pre-season, and could now feature in the Champions League.
