Liverpool defender Joel Matip ruled out for the rest of the season
Premier League
By
Mirror
| Feb 02, 2021
Liverpool defender Joel Matip is out for the rest of the season as the Cameroonian's injury woes forced the Reds into the transfer market.
The Premier League champions brought in both Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak on the final day of the transfer window, with Davies joining from Championship side Preston and Kabak arriving on loan from Schalke.
Matip suffered ankle ligament damage in last week's victory over Tottenham, and his long layoff has been confirmed by Jurgen Klopp.
“Unfortunately, we found out now after everybody looked at it that Joel will be out for the rest of the season," said Klopp.
“But he will be ready for the start of the next pre-season and finally everything will be sorted.”
The injury-hit centre-back has been unable to stand up to the stresses and strains of the extra workload placed upon him this season in the wake of the serious injuries suffered by Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez.
Stand-in centre-back Fabinho has also missed the last two matches, with Jordan Henderson playing alongside Nat Phillips for Sunday's 3-1 win at West Ham.
Fabinho is currently battling to be fit for next Sunday's big Premier League clash with Manchester City, prompting Liverpool to look to solve their injury woes in the transfer market.
Davies could go straight into the Liverpool squad for Wednesday's clash at home to Brighton after he completed his £1.6million switch from Preston.
"What I like about Ben is it just shows that each situation creates opportunities," said Klopp.
"I think it’s probably clear that in a normal transfer window, without any issues, we would not look at Preston if there’s a player for us or something like that. It’s not really likely.
"But since we saw him and since our situation got clearer and clearer – the problems we had – when we saw him we got really excited about it and thought, ‘Wow.’"
Kabak is still in Germany and will finalise his deal in the coming days.
On Turkish international, Klopp said: “He’s really a big, big talent and we are really looking forward to working with him.”