AOne of Liverpool’s stand out players this season has been Trent Alexander-Arnold. The right back’s assist tally and chances created are unprecedented from a player in his position. The news that the 23-year-old sustained an injury in the 2-0 victory over Arsenal will have left many Reds fans worrying ahead of this crucial month of fixtures. Thankfully, Trent appears to be close to a return to first team action.
Goal.com’s Neil Jones has been monitoring the fitness of the five-time trophy winner and believes he could be back in action soon.
On the latest episode of our Journo Insight Show, we asked Neil when we were next likely to see Trent in a red shirt.
Neil said
“I don’t think he’ll play against Watford. I think as soon as he did the injury there were a lot of people who rolled their eyes and said, ‘Ohhh, an injury for Trent, miss a couple of friendlies, does he?!’ It was an injury; he did get a problem. It was in the Arsenal game. He would have missed the Forest game anyway, probably. I think it was accepted that Watford – forget about that. I think there’s a general feeling that Benfica might not be worth the risk, then you’ve got City, then you’ve got Benfica, City again, so probably the City game [April 10th] seems like a more realistic target. I believe he’s been doing some training this week. We saw him in the break in Dubai. He seemed to have a good view from his exercise bike on Instagram! He was getting his rehab in, which can’t be bad. I think he’ll have an outside chance of playing against Benfica, if not City.”
Redmen Reacts
The fact that Trent has been doing some training may have had some fans thinking he’d be back for Saturday’s game, so Neil’s update will be annoying to those supporters hoping to see the right-back at Anfield this weekend.
However, Liverpool do need to be careful at such a crucial point in the season, as even a short-term injury could leave a player missing several crucial games. Thankfully, it looks as if Liverpool’s main creative force could be back to test Manchester City’s back four with those amazing curling crosses and incisive passes.
Trent is not necessarily revolutionising the full back position, simply because there are no other right backs out there with the vision and technique to match what he can do.
He is certainly doing things from right back that we have never seen before. The days of Jan Kromkamp and Phillipp Degen are long in the rear-view mirror!
The Reds have the most attacking pair of full backs since Roberto Carlos and Cafu, so if either are missing it will have an effect going forward. Fingers crossed both can stay fit between now and the end of the season, and go on to play a vital part in lifting some more trophies. Whil
TO HEAR MORE FROM NEIL ON TOPICS SUCH AS LIVERPOOL’S INTEREST IN KARIM ADEYEMI, CLICK HERE
