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Nottingham Forest given injury crisis ahead of their challenge with Liverpool with heavy distraction
There’s been some good news on the injury front for Liverpool ahead of their next fixture against Nottingham Forest on 14 September.
Arne Slot has had the luxury of almost a fully fit squad at his disposal so far this season, with Curtis Jones the only enforced absentee of note up to now.
The 23-year-old was ruled out of the wins over Brentford and Manchester United with a minor injury setback but, according to the Liverpool Echo, he’s expected to be given the go-ahead to feature against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side on Saturday week.
The midfielder has been undergoing rehabilitation work on the issue at the AXA Training Centre in recent days, and it appears that he’s making good progress.
While Jones was an unused substitute in the opening day win over Ipswich, and competition for midfield places is set to be intense when everyone is available, it’ll nonetheless come as a significant boost for Slot if the Toxteth native is back for the Forest game.
Even if he doesn’t play in that fixture, there are six more matches in the subsequent three weeks for him to get given game-time, and he’s bound to receive minutes at some stage in the autumn when we have matches every three or four days and squad depth is inevitably tested.
The 23-year-old showed by scoring against Manchester United in pre-season that he can work well within the head coach’s system, and there’s no denying that he has the passing and dribbling ability to thrive at Anfield, even if it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for him at Liverpool.
Jones could take inspiration from how Slot has galvanised another midfielder in Ryan Gravenberch, who’s shone in the number 6 role in the early weeks of the campaign.
With Harvey Elliott sent home from the England under-21 squad this week to undergo further medical assessment on Merseyside, our number 17 may have seen his chances of game-time increase, should the ex-Fulham youngster end up missing a couple of games.
Liverpool will definitely need as many players available as possible over the coming weeks, even if they’re not regular starters. The Scouser should still be a valuable contributor to our season.
Aina has started every single game played by Nottingham Forest in the new season, going the distance against Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers while logging 54 minutes in the season opener versus Bournemouth.
No Nigerian featured in the top performing players for goals, assists, speed, chances created, shots, shots conversion rate, passes completed, tackles won, blocks, duels won, successful dribbles and clearances.
When it came to interceptions, Ola Aina was the second highest ranked player with nine across three games, bettered only by Manchester United’s England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo who led the way with 11.
Aina registered one interception against Bournemouth, made a game-high three interceptions versus Southampton and his five against Wolves was also a game-high figure.
