Liverpool have confirmed that defender Joel Matip will miss the remaining matches of the 2020/21 season due to injury, MySportDab reports.
The Cameroonian suffered the injury when he challenged Son Heung-min during Liverpool’s 3-1 win against Tottenham on Thursday.
Liverpool were hoping at first that the injury was not as bad as they thought but now Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Matip’s season is absolutely over.
“Sadly, we just found out that Joel will miss the rest of the season,” Klopp told the club’s website.
“But he will be available for the start of the next season and hopefully everything will be sorted.”
However, Liverpool managed to sign reinforcements as they brought in Ben Davies from Preston and Ozan Kabak on loan from Schalke.
Fabinho is likely to still play more frequently as an auxiliary centre-back, while Jordan Henderson will now return to midfield.
Youngsters Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams have both been played in recent week after Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez injuries.
Matip had previously suffered some injury problems over the last few weeks but he’s unlikely to recover anytime soon now.
“Clearly, we have to admit that he put everything out there for the team,” Klopp added, about Matip’s injury.
“The situation is that since the season started and Joel was injured when it first started, which is unfortunate.
“We can’t forget that at he play almost every match during his time at Schalke, he barely missed games.”
Matip’s injury has now left Liverpool without their first choice first-team centre-backs this season.
Both Van Dijk and Gomez had to undergo knee surgery at the start of the season.
