Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that forward Diogo Jota is expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks with a knee injury.
The new Liverpool frontman picked up a knock in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Midtjylland in the Champions League and was initially ruled a doubt for Sunday’s trip to Fulham.
Jota was replaced by Sadio Mane having played for 87 minutes.
The Portugal forward was left out of Sunday’s squad but Klopp did reveal that he would not be required to undergo surgery.
“It’s worse than we first thought but better than what we (later) thought. The potential surgeons had a look at it and no surgery is needed, but he will be out for a while,” said Klopp.
“We don’t know exactly, but we think one and a half, two months.
“In the end it was strange, but we were happy when we heard the final diagnosis.”
Jota joined Liverpool from Wolves in the summer for a fee of about £45m and has scored nine goals in all competitions this season.
Jota’s injury is the latest in a long line of Liverpool absentees this season, with Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, James Milner, Thiago Alcantara, Xherdan Shaqiri, and Konstantinos Tsimikas all also out of action for the defending Premier League champions.
Too sad