Liverpool will be keeping a close eye on this week’s Champions League play-off second legs as they get ready to find out who they will be facing in the last 16 next month.
With Arne Slot’s side in a battle for a top-four spot in the Premier League, winning the Champions League may end up being the only route back into the competition next season, placing an extra layer of importance in their upcoming knockout tie.
But before Liverpool even knows who they will be facing next, they have suffered a blow which has seen insult added to injury.
Liverpool hit with Champions League red tape blow
Slot saw Wataru Endo taken off on a stretcher during his side’s 1-0 victory over Sunderland earlier this month, with the Japan international having spent the match deputising at right-back. This came after the 33-year-old had attempted to play on, only to fall back to the floor in agony.
"I assume he will be out for a long, long time,” Slot said following the match, “What is long, it is difficult to say at this moment but you can hardly believe what this right full-back position brings us this season."
With Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong both sidelined, Slot certainly is feeling the pinch at right-back and as well as having to make do without the versatile Endo for the foreseeable future, a specific UEFA rule means that Liverpool will not be able to replace him in their Champions League squad.
Rule 31.14.c dictates that only one outfield player can be replaced if they are hit by long-term injury or illness and only applies to the first six games of the league phase, which ended back in December.
Liverpool’s last-16 tie will be played next month and Slot is only permitted to add to his European squad with players on the B list, which means no senior player can be brought in.
Earlier in the season Liverpool were allowed to replace Giovanni Leoni with Federico Chiesa after the former suffered a season-ending ACL injury, but with Endo’s injury coming after Liverpool submitted their squad for the knockout phase, nothing can be done.
Calvin Ramsay would be an option to replace Endo, but due to the rules on locally trained players, this is a non-starter.
This leaves Slot with just 19 senior players available for the remainder of Liverpool’s European campaign, with the likes of Endo, Bradley and Alexander Isak in the squad, despite being sidelined with long-term problems.
There is hope that Isak could be back for the quarter-finals which take place between April 7 and 15, should Liverpool make it that far.
The draw for the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place on Friday, February 27, with their next opponents one of Atletico Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray or Juventus.
