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Liverpool defender Joe Gomez is set to miss several weeks after picking up a muscle injury during the club's pre-season tour of the United States. He was forced off eight minutes into Liverpool's victory over Sunderland in Nashville last Saturday.
Head coach Andoni Iraola addressed the injury at a press conference in Chicago on Thursday morning. He confirmed Gomez will miss time but said it is too early to set a precise return date.
"Joe has a muscle injury. I think it was quite clear since he complained straight away, so it will depend how he evolves, but he will be some weeks off," Iraola told journalists.
Asked to be more specific, Iraola said: "It's a muscle injury and [with] muscle injuries it is difficult to say one day, but normally I always put myself as one month. If it goes very good the injury is a little bit less, if [not] it goes a little more. It's not massive, it's a normal muscle injury, [but] I think it's going to be impossible to have him for the start of the season because we are not so far [away]. It shouldn't be a lot more."
With Gomez sidelined and Jeremy Jacquet also absent, Liverpool started Wednesday's pre-season fixture against Wrexham in New York with a centre-back pairing of Luke Chambers and Ifeanyi Ndukwe. Mor Talla Ndiaye was also used in the position during the second half of the 1-0 win at Yankee Stadium. Virgil van Dijk is currently returning to pre-season training in Liverpool following World Cup commitments.
Iraola acknowledged the squad is stretched at centre-back but praised the young players for their performances. "You have seen these games, we are pretty thin in the centre-back position. We still don't have Virgil. The only real centre-backs we have right now are Mor and Ify, that are 18 years old, just arrived to the club and they are doing incredibly well," he said.
"Yesterday Luke Chambers played there, he is not a centre-back but he played really, really well. We have to until we recover some bodies. I think Jeremy is ready to go and we will recover Virgil, but I'm happy that playing against Sunderland, against Wrexham, good teams with 18-year-old centre-backs, the team has showed composure and solidity at the back and [that] speaks very well about them."