Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Liverpool star Fabinho suffered a hamstring injury during Tuesday night’s Champions League win over FC Midtjylland.
The midfielder, who’s stood in at centre-back for Virgil van Dijk for the last three matches, pulled up just shy of the half-hour mark at Anfield.
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Fabinho was seen holding his hamstring as he spoke to Liverpool’s club doctor on the pitch. A decision was taken to withdraw the midfielder from the game shortly afterwards.
The Brazilian’s injury came on a night where Liverpool didn’t have it all their own way, as the six-time European champions laboured to a 2-0 win over the Danish side thanks to Diogo Jota’s tap-in and Mohamed Salah’s penalty.
Klopp couldn’t say how long he expected Fabinho to be out for, as the club will know more after the player has a scan on Wednesday.
But the Liverpool boss admitted the early signs don’t look good.
He said after the match: “It’s exactly the last thing we needed. I know he felt a hamstring, and that’s not good. He said he could have played on but no sprints, which doesn’t help.
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“We have to wait for the scan obviously but when someone’s going off with a muscle problem then it’s pretty rare that the doc calls me the next morning and says ‘false alarm, it’s all fine. He can go again’.
“It’s now only about how long, that’s all. Absolutely not cool but that’s the situation.”
Fabinho’s departure meant Klopp was forced to bring on 19-year-old centre-back Rhys Williams, who partnered Joe Gomez for the rest of the game.
Williams was making his first Champions League appearance at Anfield but didn’t let the occasion get the better of him as he helped Liverpool keep a clean sheet.
And Klopp was delighted with the youngster’s efforts.
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Klopp added: “When you lose in the first half pretty much one of the last men standing in the back and you bring on a 19-year-old kid, nobody knows how that’ll work out.
“But Rhys did not have a problem in one situation. He did really well, that was really good!
“He was even commanding, chatty and all that sort of stuff so it was a really good game from him.”
There were also fears among Liverpool fans that captain Jordan Henderson had sustained an injury as he was substituted at half-time.
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However, Klopp revealed that Henderson is fine and the decision to take him off was tactical.
Klopp said: “I decided before the game Hendo would only play 45 minutes. He wanted to go on but I made the change.
“At half time we had to change things… Hendo is fine! He wanted to stay on the pitch but I had to show a little bit of responsibility.”
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