Nottingham Forest game “too early” for midfielder, says Liverpool manager
Liverpool will travel to face Wolves on Tuesday without midfielder Florian Wirtz, after manager Arne Slot confirmed the German international has not recovered in time from a back injury.
Wirtz has been sidelined since suffering the issue during the warm-up ahead of last month’s trip to Nottingham Forest and was also absent from Liverpool’s 5-2 victory over West Ham at the weekend.
Slot admitted the midfielder’s recovery has proved less predictable than initially hoped.
“I think that [Tuesday’s game] will be too early,” Slot said. “I didn’t expect him not to be available for today, so sometimes things can develop in a positive or negative way in an injury.
“Now we are thinking it doesn’t have to be too long, but Tuesday will probably be too early. The week after will be tight as things stand now.”
There was more encouraging news elsewhere, however, with Jeremie Frimpong returning to action off the bench against West Ham after his own injury layoff. The substitute soon forced an own goal from Axel Disasi to score Liverpool’s fifth.
“Having Jeremie back is really nice but injuries do go through your mind because we play three games in seven days, especially with players coming back from injuries,” Slot said.
“I prefer to have this problem rather than see him with the medical staff working on his recovery.”
