Arne Slot has conceded that Joe Gomez “might” need surgery on his most recent hamstring injury, with the defender dealt a cruel blow that will keep him out for “quite a long time.”
Gomez’s career has been interrupted by a long list of cruel injury blows, the latest of which he sustained on his return at Plymouth in the FA Cup.
He was on the pitch for only a handful of minutes before a repeat of the hamstring injury that kept him sidelined for 10 matches earlier in the campaign.
With just over three months left in the 2024/25 season, there have been concerns over whether we will see Gomez on the pitch again, and Slot offered the latest on his centre-back.
“Joe will take quite a long time. He is going to be out for numerous weeks because of a hamstring injury,” Slot explained during his pre-Aston Villa press conference.
“He tries to do everything to be with the team, he worked really hard to come back and then the first game he came back after two or three minutes we saw him making a sprint.
“Now he’s out for weeks again. That’s always very hard for a player, in every part of the season, let alone in the part of the season everybody is looking forward to.”
The Liverpool boss later explained that they expect the 27-year-old back towards the end of the campaign, although surgery has yet to be ruled out.
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“He will miss large parts of the end of the season, but we expect him to be back in the end phase of the season,” Slot said.
“He might [need surgery], but that’s still something we have to assess.”
Gomez has featured just 17 times this season for a total of 863 minutes, not since his debut season in 2015/16 has he played fewer minutes.
The hope is that the 27-year-old can return to play a role at the backend of the season as Liverpool aim to finish Slot’s first season in charge with the ultimate high.
It is an incredibly cruel blow for Gomez, who is the club’s longest-serving player and has a history of bad luck when it comes to injuries. With question marks over his future in the summer, let’s hope we have not seen the last of him in a Liverpool shirt.
