It took just three days for Liverpool joy to turn into Liverpool anguish as the Reds were dealt an unwanted injury blow at their mid-season training camp in Dubai.
On Tuesday, supporters were treated to the sight of Luis Diaz back in training alongside his team-mates as Jurgen Klopp’s side’s preparations for the second half of the campaign got underway. But come Friday and it was revealed that he was leaving the camp and flying back to Merseyside for further tests after complaining of discomfort in the same knee he injured against Arsenal back in October. As one hand giveth, the other taketh away. Worse was to come when later that evening, reports emerged that he is set to undergo surgery, with a potential return in March mooted.
With the club confirming his presence in the Middle East, along with Naby Keita, Diogo Jota and Arthur Melo, had been to ‘continue to work on their individual rehabilitation programmes from their respective injuries’, his participation in the training, alongside Keita, was most welcome.
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After all, Liverpool have already been rocked by injury far too often so far this season, with 20 of Klopp’s first team squad missing matches through enforced absences at one point or another already during the first half of the campaign. But now at the World Cup break, the end was in sight as the Reds took off to Dubai, with the aforementioned quartet their only confirmed senior players still suffering from injury.
Yet it was known that the Colombian was about to return to training in the Middle East, and had been pencilled in to make a playing comeback in the forthcoming friendlies against Lyon and AC Milan. Diaz had said himself in a social media post earlier this week he was "very happy to be back", but now faces an anxious wait to discover when he can actually return to action.
Down in sixth in the Premier League table, seven points off the Champions League places and with their title hopes very much dead in the water, those aforementioned injury woes inevitably played a major role in Liverpool’s struggles during the first half of the season. But this World Cup break was supposed to act as a reset for the Reds, enabling them to welcome back injured stars and reignite their fortunes, refreshed and recharged, in 2023.
But Diaz’s new lay-off reminds Liverpool they can’t run from such problems. As much as they would like their season to start here, they are playing catch-up for a reason. There is no magic wand, despite the improved showings we saw from Klopp’s ranks in the final weeks before the break.
It seems cruel that the winger has suffered such a setback at the final hurdle to unearth this fresh uncertainty, eating away at the supporter optimism the World Cup break had created in the first place. Having avoided surgery when first injuring his knee, Liverpool will have everything crossed that further tests at least provide a similar diagnosis and best possible outcome.
But there will inevitably now be a pessimistic fear of the worst following this latest twist. The Reds know only too well, as the finale to their unprecedented quadruple charge proved, there is no guaranteed happily ever after.
While this World Cup break has offered up dreams of a rejuvenated Liverpool on the march, Jude Bellingham pulling on the famous red jersey in 2023 and the prospect of mega-rich new owners who can help the Reds topple Man City, Real Madrid et al, welcome to a crashing dose of reality. Enter stage left, when it rains, it pours.
Confirmation that Diaz was flying home for further tests came after he missed training on Thursday and Friday, having come through just two days of sessions, with reports of his impending surgery following shortly afterwards. His absence now opens up new questions for Klopp and his side.
His initial absence from training was not perceived to be concerning. After all, it’s only natural for Liverpool to manage their players’ returns from lengthy lay-offs carefully.
Yet with Keita, Thiago Alcantara, Joel Matip and Curtis Jones also missing from training on Friday, and Harvey Elliott pictured taking part with a bandaged hand, you wonder what other issues the Reds are contending with behind the scenes.
For the record, Klopp would allay such fears when offering an update on Diaz. “It’s all good [fitness-wise] with the boys who are here,” he told the club’s website. “What’s not good is we have to see with Lucho. He felt something and we need to have further assessment there, but apart from that they all look really, really good.”
Yet Liverpool are always predominantly cagey and guarded when it comes to divulging the severity of injuries, not wanting to give too much information away or setting up their players for a potential fall if recovery does not go to plan and they return later than envisaged. Ultimately, social media panic in their fanbase is not their concern as they work in the best interests of their squad both mentally and physically.
Injuries are part and parcel of football but is this really just frequent Reds bad luck or something that needs to be addressed directly behind the scenes? Paranoid fans will furiously continue to ask such questions of their club’s injury record, throwing around conspiracy theories, but answers won’t be forthcoming, to the public at least.
All clubs suffer injuries but Liverpool do frequently seem to be stung harder than most. Only Klopp and his backroom staff are really capable of truly knowing if there is more to such recurring setbacks than what meets the eye.
Meanwhile, it was last January when Diaz first joined Liverpool, signing from FC Porto for an initial £37m. Make no mistake, the Reds will be handing over that full £49m courtesy of activated add-ons based on the evidence we have seen from the Colombian so far.
One of Liverpool’s star performers over the past 12 months, even as they struggled to navigate the early months of this season, the Reds’ title-challenge last year had fallen flat prior to the winger’s arrival, only for him to give Klopp’s men a welcome shot in the arm.
Poached from under the noses of Tottenham Hotspur, a transfer window ahead of schedule, he made a telling difference as Liverpool bosses plotted out life after Sadio Mane. His first 12 months would return 10 goals and eight assists from 38 appearances in Red, along with three trophies and winners’ medals. Long may it continue.
Diaz had been poised to have a similar impact on Klopp’s ranks in 2023 as he closed in on his injury return. Hopefully he still can, whenever his comeback now might be, as the Reds wait patiently to unleash him once more.
In the meantime, it does beg the question what impact his setback could have on Liverpool’s transfer plans with the January window looming. Do they need to sign another Diaz?
2022 has been a year of overhaul in the Reds’ frontline, with midfield next on the recruitment team’s agenda for 2023. Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Fabio Carvalho all signed up as Mane, Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi departed, with Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota both handed new long-term deals.
On paper it was a successful revamp as Liverpool bosses started to address their ageing squad, but the final weeks before the World Cup break made it crystal clear that the Reds had allowed themselves to be caught short.
With Jota suffering a serious calf injury just a week after Diaz’s own knee problem, Klopp was left with only Nunez, Salah and Firmino as his available senior forwards, with Carvalho very much a work in progress. Initially alternating between formations as he looked to compensate for his lack of available left-forwards, the German eventually settled on a return to 4-3-3 with his club-record Uruguayan stationed out of position on the flanks.
In truth, it worked but was only ever meant to be a short term fix ahead of Diaz’s scheduled festive return, with Jota pencilled in for a comeback of his own in February. You spend £64m on a striker and you want to see him up front after all.
But now Nunez is the only senior option once again for the foreseeable. Do Liverpool really want to risk heading into 2023 with no available alternatives as they sink their teeth back into the most punishing of fixtures lists?
When Klopp said he’d like FSG to take most risks in the transfer market, this was not what he meant. Regardless of the results from Diaz’s impending medical tests, such a gamble would not be wise.
The Colombian’s return would have prompted that dreaded cliche , ‘like a new signing’, to emerge once more, but now the winger’s setback might have forced the Reds' hand. If they are to claw back that deficit at the top of the table to qualify for next season’s Champions League, they need all the help they can get - and that includes from their American owners despite their ongoing efforts to sell up.
From seven senior international forwards last season, this year Klopp can only call upon the services of five. As good as Diaz is, and as much as he was the answer to their prayers 12 months ago, now Liverpool must sign his ‘replacement’ to complete their attacking revamp once and for all.
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