Liverpool suffered an injury blow during the warm-up ahead of the Nottingham Forest clash at the City Ground on Sunday, Feb. 22. Arne Slot has now provided an update on the German ahead of the West Ham United clash.
No Timeline Set for Florian Wirtz After Liverpool Star’s Injury
Liverpool spent a stunning $156 million to sign Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, but the German’s time at Anfield has been tough. Wirtz needed 18 Premier League matches to open his scoring, but had picked up the pace in recent matches.
The 22-year-old was gearing up to face Nottingham Forest last week when he picked up an issue during warm-up. He was named in the starting XI, but was replaced by Curtis Jones.
Slot spoke after the 1-0 win, saying he was confident the German was not seriously injured and that they would have him in the next match. However, the manager has now delivered bad news to the Liverpool fans ahead of the West Ham United clash.
Speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference, Slot said that he was disappointed not to have Wirtz in his matchday squad to face West Ham. He added that they were unsure about the timeline for his return to the pitch but did not disclose the injury.
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He said, “I don’t expect Florian to be available. It’s a disappointment. Every time a player is not available is a disappointment; it’s something that I didn’t expect after last week. At this moment of time, I don’t know. Usually when I say that, I do know, and I don’t want to share that. But this time, I honestly don’t know.”
Slot added that it was tough for Wirtz to remain fit for long as he was playing in a tough league for the first time in his career. He said that the German was just upping his level and said:
“It’s a big accomplishment for Wirtz to stay fit for such a long time because he had to make a step up from where he played to the Premier League and Liverpool. It tells a lot about his mentality and work rate that he has stayed fit for so long. It is a disappointment for him and for us, because he has played really, really well lately.”
Wirtz was in the news earlier this week, with his agent, Volker Struth, saying that it was his dream to take the midfielder to Real Madrid in the future.
