Liverpool boss Arne Slot was quizzed about the injuries to Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley
09:59, 20 Dec 2024Updated 10:03, 20 Dec 2024
Arne Slot admits it’s difficult to put a timescale on the Liverpool return of Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley as the pair step up their rehabilitation from respective injuries. Both players suffered problems in the same game, with Konate taking a knock to the knee and Bradley picking up a hamstring complaint in the victory over Real Madrid in late November.
And while the two defenders are making progress in their recoveries, Slot says that he cannot be sure on when they will return after being wrong about Diogo Jota’s fitness.
The Portuguese forward was out for two months with an upper body injury sustained in October and Slot admitted the thought the attacker would return to action sooner than he did.
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It’s for that reason that Slot ruled out naming a return date for either Konate or Bradley, though he did acknowledge that they were making progress. The pair are Liverpool’s only injury concern for the time being.
Slot said: “These are the two that are still in red, so they don’t train with us at the moment. But they are on their way back, but they don’t train with the team yet.
“That is quite difficult [to say timescale]. Jota I thought would have been back earlier but sometimes the end stage of rehab takes longer, sometimes they join (training) and then they are not completely ready to start. So let’s wait and see but we have a good rehab team here who have done some good work with Alisson and a few others.
“The main thing is if they come back they are ready to come back, let’s not focus on two or three days, it’s more important for them to stay fit for the long term. Let’s hope with Conor and Ibou the same thing happens.”
