EPL: 7 Liverpool players ruled out of West Ham clash with another 2 as doubts

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has expressed his sadness after Diogo Jota was ruled out of the World Cup Finals with the injury he suffered in Sunday’s win against Manchester City.

The former Wolverhampton Wanderers star sustained a calf injury in the closing stages of the win against Pep Guardiola’s side and has now been assessed. 

Klopp revealed the severity of the injury and revealed Jota will be unavailable to travel to the finals in Qatar with Portugal.

Klopp told the club website: “It’s really not good news about Diogo. Yes, he will miss the World Cup. (It’s a) pretty serious injury in the calf muscle and now the recovery process starts. That’s it pretty much. That is the first diagnosis, which was pretty clear, and all the rest will now follow in the next few days. It is very sad news for the boy, and for us as well of course, for Portugal. (It will have a) big impact. So now we can say that because he will not be in for a long time; we talk about months.”

There was more positive news on the fitness of Curtis Jones after he returned to the bench for Sunday’s win over City.  Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita have both returned to training but the game could come too soon for either midfielder to make a comeback.

Klopp also revealed Ibrahim Konate is not in contention but should return to contention over the coming days.  He said: “Ibou not in team training yet but we knew it before it will not be that long – he will be, in the end, out maybe for 10 days until he can start training again. When was it? It was Rangers, so tomorrow it’s a week and then maybe Saturday, whenever, he is back in team training. He was not long out, so if he can train fully, he’s available.”

Joel Matip, Luis Diaz and Calvin Ramsey are all confirmed absentees but the latter of that trio could feature for the Reds Under-21s when they face their Everton counterparts on Saturday after suffering a setback in his comeback from an ankle injury.

West Ham have also experienced mixed news on the injury front with Maxwell Cornet and Nayef Aguerd still ruled out with respective thigh and ankle injuries. Kurt Zouma (cold) and Craig Dawson (dead leg) could return to contention after missing the Hammers 1-1 draw at Southampton on Sunday.