Jurgen Klopp’s plan for the new season have been thrown into disarray after goalkeeper Loris Karius was ruled out for two months with a broken hand.
The Germany Under-21 international cost Liverpool £5million when he arrived from Mainz in June and Klopp had intended to start Karius between the posts on the opening weekend at Arsenal, after he advised him not to go to the Olympic Games.
That idea, however, has been shattered after Karius sustained the injury in the 1-0 defeat against Chelsea on Wednesday in Pasadena following a collision with Dejan Lovren, in which the central defender looked to have come off worse.
Karius was examined back at Liverpool’s Palo Alto training base when they returned on Thursday and it was deemed that he will need an operation to correct the damage. He flew home from the United States home on Friday and will have surgery at some point in the next 72 hours.
I never want an injured player and there’s never a good time with the timing of them,’ Klopp said ahead of Liverpool’s latest friendly against AC Milan. ‘It’s not good for him, not for us but it won’t change and we have to take it. We knew all know the quality of Simon Mignolet.
‘He’s made a good impression in the first few days back in training and we also have a very experienced one in Alex Manninger.
‘A broken bone in the hand for a goalkeeper isn’t great. It’s not the worst but it could have been even worse. Six to eight to ten weeks out is not the longest period but it’s not too good either.’
It is anticipated that Karius will not be able to make his competitive debut now until the middle of October and he will miss games, among others, against Arsenal, Leicester, Chelsea, Tottenham and most likely Manchester United.
There is no escaping, though, how big a setback this is; Karius has started each of Liverpool’s five pre-season friendlies so far and only conceded one goal – Gary Cahill’s header at the Rose Bowl.
Mignolet, who insisted he was happy to go head-to-head with Karius to become Klopp’s No1, will now be given the unexpected opportunity to make the place his own and Manninger, the 39-year-old former Arsenal keeper, will be his back-up.
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