Thiago Alcantara will miss Liverpool's next three matches, including the clash with Premier League champions Manchester City, due to a calf injury.
The midfielder sustained the problem during last week's 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Anfield and was replaced by Naby Keita after 62 minutes.
Keita was also injured in the EFL Cup win at Norwich City, suffering a foot concern during the first half at Carrow Road.
While Keita is due to sit out the league game at Brentford on Saturday and possibly the Champions League trip to Porto, Thiago is not expected to return until after the international break next month, meaning he will miss the meeting with Pep Guardiola's City on October 3.
Reds manager Jurgen Klopp said on Friday: "It's not 100 per cent clear when Thiago will be back. It's a muscle, in the calf. After the international break, probably. I don't think anything earlier is possible. We will have to see.
"[Keita is] Nothing really serious but it keeps him out for the next game for sure, maybe longer. It's of course not cool when the players have a good pre-season, can play a lot of games and are now out. It happens throughout the season. Hopefully, when they come back, that's it now and they can play the rest of the season."
Liverpool have started the season in strong fashion, with four wins and a draw from their first five top-flight games in which they have scored 12 goals and conceded just once.
However, Klopp is expecting a tough test against a Brentford side who shocked Arsenal on the opening day of their first campaign in the Premier League.
"I watched the press conference of [Brentford boss] Thomas Frank, and it was like one of the most entertaining things I've watched in the last few years. Half an hour talking about the different players – it was really good," said Klopp.
"The football they play is incredible, the organisation is incredible, so Thomas has obviously done a brilliant job, Brentford are doing a brilliant job. They show with lesser money how possible it is to create something really special.
"It reminds me of my time at Mainz: we had no money, we had to be really creative in the transfer market. There's a massive difference between the money Brentford has and Mainz had, but it shows it's still possible."
Takumi Minanimo will be hoping for his first league outing of the season after scoring twice in the 3-0 win at Norwich, and Klopp believes the Japan forward has become a "different player" since his loan spell with Southampton last season.
"Taki is really an outstanding talent," he said. "You come from Asia, go to Salzburg, come to Liverpool, Liverpool are not in the best phase of their lives, he came in when everything was difficult – no supporters in the stadium, all that stuff – and you need to get used to the Premier League. That's how it is.
"It helped massively that he went to Southampton. He came back a completely different player. You can see that now: his finishes are in an incredible moment, how he connects the game, how he drops at the right moment. He's a different package now. Players need time. He used that time."
England call would be realisation of childhood dream for Spurs’ Ashleigh Neville
Tottenham full-back Ashleigh Neville will forever be proud of fulfilling one lifelong goal but has not yet given up hope of achieving a dream England call-up.
It was only four years ago that Neville quit her teaching job in Birmingham to concentrate fully on football after Spurs’ promotion to the Women’s Super League.
Fast forward to the present and Neville has become one of the division’s most consistent performers, despite playing across numerous positions and amid a rollercoaster period for Tottenham.
Neville played a key role in Spurs’ fifth-place finish in 2022 but still missed out on Sarina Wiegman’s England squad for the Euros and, while her club battled relegation last season, the 30-year-old’s performances remained excellent.
Wiegman acknowledged 12 months ago that Neville was doing a “really good job”, but the emergence of Chelsea’s Niamh Charles alongside system tweaks and forward Rachel Daly being used as a makeshift left-back has meant she remains uncapped.
Nevertheless, Neville is full of pride at being in her fifth season as a full-time professional and relishing life under new Tottenham boss Robert Vilahamn.
“I always wanted to play for England,” Neville told the PA news agency ahead of next week’s north London derby with Arsenal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“That was kind of my dream when I was a kid, but I never thought I would play professional football when I was a young girl because it wasn’t possible back then.
“I am obviously proud of where I have come from and where I’m at.
“Since Robert’s come in, it has probably been the most consistent I have been as a player looking back at stats and games.
“If that call-up comes, it comes, and it would be nice to play for my country, but we have a great team so I can’t really fault the (England) girls for what they do.
“I am just happy at Spurs and that’s where my head and focus is at, but if that call comes then great.”
Neville impressed during Tottenham’s battle to stay in the WSL last season, scoring three times and providing two assists while playing in both full-back positions or further forward under ex-boss Rehanne Skinner.
Vilahamn’s arrival this summer has resulted in a shift of philosophy, with Spurs eager to dominate possession and attack at every opportunity.
It helped Vilahamn make a flying start, but sixth-placed Tottenham suffered a chastening second defeat of the season before the international break when they went down 7-0 at Manchester City.
Neville said: “We spoke at the end of the game and a few people were disheartened, which I understand because no one likes losing and especially not when it’s 7-0, but I said in the huddle this won’t define our season.
“It is one game out of the eight we’ve played and we’ve had a really good start. We can’t sit on it. We have to park it and move on and that’s what the girls are ready to do.”
View this post on InstagramLife does not get any easier for Spurs with Manchester United coming up at home on Sunday before two fixtures with Arsenal next week.
The second date with Arsenal on Saturday, December 16 will take place at the men’s 62,850-seater Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“When I first came here, this match wasn’t necessarily a big thing for the women’s team,” Neville reflected.
“I think we have come a long way since then.
“I can remember the first game we played with Arsenal (in 2019), we lost 10-0 and then the season before last we got a draw and had a close game.
“So it will be a really good game and I love the north London derby. They are a battle, but I am all about putting in a big tackle and playing in front of a big crowd so it’s great for the game.
“All the girls believe. People say we’re the underdogs, but I don’t look at us like that. We are just as good as Arsenal.”
Jack is Pascal Gross’ son – Roberto De Zerbi hails ‘smart’ teenager Hinshelwood
Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi labelled teenager Jack Hinshelwood “Pascal Gross’ son” following his match-winning display in a 2-1 Premier League success over Brentford.
England Under-19 international Hinshelwood marked his first senior appearance at the Amex Stadium by heading the second-half winner, just seconds after making a crucial goal-line clearance to deny Yoane Wissa.
De Zerbi praised the maturity of the 18-year-old full-back as he likened him to stand-in Albion skipper Gross, who assisted the decisive goal, having cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s penalty.
“He played another great game,” the Italian coach said of Hinshelwood.
“He deserves to play now because he plays like an older player.
“Yesterday I said Jack is Pascal Gross’ son because he is very young but he plays like an older player.
“He has personality, he is very smart on the pitch, he can play full-back, midfielder in every position.”
Victory for eighth-placed Brighton was just their second in nine top-flight fixtures.
Sussex-born Hinshelwood, whose father Adam played 100 league games for Albion between 2002 and 2009, was making only his fifth top-flight appearance and first on home soil.
The academy graduate claimed his maiden first-team goal in the 52nd minute by powering home Gross’ looping cross from the left, having raced forward in the aftermath of preventing Wissa restoring the visitors’ lead.
He received a standing ovation when he was replaced 17 minutes from time before returning to the field at full-time to soak in the acclaim.
“It is an unbelievable feeling, it was my first game playing here at the Amex in front of all these fans,” Hinshelwood, who joined the club aged seven, told Amazon Prime.
“And it was a brilliant feeling to get a standing ovation when I came off. I am just delighted to get the win.
“The fans, players and manager have all shown great belief in me and I am just trying to repay them.”
Brentford goalscorer Mbeumo was forced off shortly before the break with a nasty-looking ankle issue, while his replacement Wissa was perhaps fortunate to escape a red card for raising his hand into the face of Billy Gilmour.
Bees boss Thomas Frank is awaiting an update on the severity of Mbeumo’s issue and played down the Wissa incident.
“He rolled his ankle, we will assess him tomorrow and then we will see the status of it,” the Dane said of his leading scorer.
Asked about Wissa, he replied: “I saw a player who holds the ball (Gilmour) and I saw a player who wanted to start quick and then I saw two players get a yellow card each.
“I know everyone will speak about red card or no red card – I think it was absolutely handled right by the ref.”
Jurgen Klopp calls Amazon Prime presenter ‘ignorant’ after Liverpool win again
Jurgen Klopp accused Amazon Prime Video presenter Marcus Buckland of being “ignorant” after he made a joke about Liverpool’s next game being on Saturday lunchtime.
Klopp saw his side win 2-0 at bottom club Sheffield United thanks to goals from Virgil van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai at Bramall Lane.
They return to action in less than 72 hours against Crystal Palace for a 12.30pm kick-off, which is one of the German’s biggest bugbears when his side have played on the prior Wednesday night.
In a pitchside interview after the game Buckland joked that the Palace game was being played in Klopp’s “favourite kick-off time” but the Liverpool boss did not take it well.
Interrupting, Klopp said: “That’s really brave to make a joke about that.
“We go home, I don’t know exactly what time we will get home, we will arrive, maybe 1am-2am tonight and then play again. We have two sessions.
“It is fine to recover and then we go again. Crystal Palace play tonight as well so it is really fine.
“I realise you don’t understand it as well and you work in football so why should I explain it again. If you make a joke out of that you are ignorant.”
When Buckland said he was not meaning to be disrespectful, Klopp added: “You were already.
“All good, you can say what you want, I cannot say what I want because that would be really different.”
The victory at Bramall Lane, which was their eighth game unbeaten, saw them close the gap to leaders Arsenal to just two points, with Manchester City losing at Aston Villa.
City are a further four points behind, but Klopp says it would be “the biggest joke in the history of football” to write Pep Guardiola’s team off.
“If someone writes City off that would be the biggest joke in the history of football, that makes no sense,” he said. “Arsenal are fighting, the next game starts from 0-0.
“I have no clue where it (the title) is going to end up.
“It is so difficult and intense with all the games coming up. Ask me again in April.”
Klopp also confirmed that defender Joel Matip has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament after suffering an injury in Sunday’s win over Fulham.
He said: “It’s an ACL, ruptured, so that’s what I unfortunately expected from, that’s what it looked like. Very unfortunate, but that’s it.”
Liverpool’s victory ensured Chris Wilder’s Bramall Lane homecoming was ruined in his first match back following Tuesday’s sacking of Paul Heckingbottom.
Wilder, who guided the club from League One to ninth in the Premier League in his first spell, was sacked in March 2021 and inherits a side seemingly on a fast-track back to the Championship.
The 56-year-old was given a hero’s welcome ahead of kick-off.
“It will stay with me forever that, I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart,” he said.
“It has been a long time away. Some part of the support might have thought it was a mistake coming back but I have got to earn that trust back.
“What Prince Abdullah did a couple of days ago, saying I was the best man for the job, I really appreciate that. I do believe I am the best man for the job but I have to go and prove it. I still think there is still plenty of life in me yet.
“I enjoyed watching a Sheffield United performance tonight. The reception they gave me was incredible.”
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