Liverpool sweat on Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker injuries but Alexander Isak boost imminent
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A look at how Liverpool may line up on the other side of the international break when they travel to Manchester City in the quarter-final of the FA CupThe international break might just feel that bit longer than normal for Arne Slot as he plots a return to winning ways for Liverpool next month at Manchester City.After a run of one point from the last nine available in the Premier League, the champions head into the March break at a low ebb, with their next assignment an FA Cup quarter-final tie at City on Saturday, April 4.Slot, of course, will be keeping his fingers crossed for his international contingent to return healthy and fit as the Liverpool head coach can ill-afford to be without any more players right now.Hugo Ekitike, theoretically, will be okay to return after the injury he suffered in the early stages of Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion was revealed to be a dead leg.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page"Hugo, I think he could play tomorrow if he needed to," Slot said.
"It was a dead leg, as you call it here I think."If the 17-goal top scorer is unscathed with France then he will come back into the fold for that visit to City, but it's unclear at this stage what the situation looks like for Mohamed Salah.The Egyptian, somewhat famously, is rarely injured, so seeing him ask to come off against Galatasaray on Wednesday night was alarming.He missed Saturday's trip to Brighton with Slot saying the day that it was an issue to pick up on the other side of the break."The good thing for Liverpool and for us is that we go to an international break," Slot said. "The bad thing for Egypt is that he can't go there."We are hoping also with what Mo has shown in the past that he can recover faster than other players might in similar situations because he takes such good care of his body."History has shown that he can be earlier back than some others.
The Reds could use him at the Etihad, that is certain.At the other end of the pitch, Alisson Becker and his condition will also face questioning after a muscle injury forced him to miss the Brighton match over the weekend.The Brazil goalkeeper faces a race against time to be fit for a huge week in early April, with Liverpool slated to travel to Paris for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie with PSG following the FA Cup clash with City."Alisson will definitely be out during the international break and let's see afterwards," Slot said after the loss to Brighton.The break does also allow Alexander Isak two weeks of further recovery and rehabilitation time, with Slot revealing on Friday that the £125m striker will be ready for inclusion in Paris as things stood."Alex will available [for PSG], yes," Slot confirmed on Friday in the embargoed section of his press conference. Exactly what I get from that I cannot tell you because he hasn't trained with the team even once."Slot, of course, was right to urge caution regarding Isak, given how disrupted his first season at Anfield has been.