Liverpool lose another talisman! Trent Alexander-Arnold ruled out of action with torn knee ligament to pile more misery on Jurgen Klopp

The England international hyperextended his knee, resulting in a minor tear in the lateral ligament, during Liverpool's 2-0 FA Cup victory over Arsenal on Sunday. Alexander-Arnold has already undergone scans on his knee and is now set to be out of action for at least three weeks.

Lijnders said of Liverpool's latest injury blow: "First of all, some not-that-good news, Trent hyperextended his knee during the last game. So he has a little tear in the lateral ligament of his knee and he will need time to recover. He had a scan and he will be out for a few weeks, so let's see after that. He will get some rest and then hopefully he can come back to where he was. Because this guy was decisive in all the games and was the one who created constantly for us from deep and gave the team a high level of flexibility. We will really miss him."

The loss of Alexander-Arnold piles more misery on Klopp amid a selection crisis of sorts, with star forward Mohamed Salah currently away at the 2023 AFCON with Egypt. Liverpool will be however boosted by the return of Virgil Van Dijk for the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Fulham, after he missed the Arsenal clash due to illness.

“Virgil is back,” Lijnders added. “He did some runs yesterday on the pitch, looked good again. So he will be back in the squad, he recovered well. So it really helped him not to travel to London."

Dominik Szoboszlai is also nearing his return, but Andy Robertson is continuing with his recovery from a dislocated shoulder and will fly to Dubai for a tailor-made recovery session.

"Dom is progressing well on the pitch, he's running, so let's see. Not available for tomorrow," he said.

"Then we have Robbo, he's almost at the three-month mark, so he will get checked by the surgeon. And if he does that scan and we see everything [so] that we can really progress him, he will go to Dubai for a week to do proper volume sessions, proper sessions, so that will be good for him. Then we see the three-month-mark scan and then we can see how quickly he can go into contact again. Same for Kostas (Tsimikas). Kostas is progressing really well, really quick. So hopefully both of them - Robbo and Kostas - will be back at the end of this month to train with the team."

Stefan Bajcetic (calf) and Thiago Alcantara (hip) are also long-term absentees and won't be available again until February. "They will not be ready for the end of this month. It will probably be going into the next month to train with us. But both (with) no complications, progressing," said Lijinders.

Liverpool will have a mini-break for 10 days after hosting Fulham on Wednesday, with their next Premier League outing against Bournemouth not due to take place until January 21. The league encounter will be followed by the second leg of their League Cup semi-final on January 24, an FA Cup fourth-round clash three days later, and a blockbuster clash against Chelsea on January 31.