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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
George Flood

Liverpool suffer second injury blow against Crystal Palace to compound Alisson issue

Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister suffered a groin injury during Saturday’s win over Crystal Palace, manager Arne Slot has confirmed.

The Reds will head into the October international break sitting top of the Premier League table after an early goal from Diogo Jota was enough to see off the winless hosts 1-0 at Selhurst Park and continue a fine start to life on Merseyside for Slot, who has now won nine of his first 10 matches in charge across all competitions as Jurgen Klopp’s successor.

However, that latest victory in south London came at a cost, with goalkeeper Alisson limping off late on and replaced by third-choice Vitezslav Jaros with usual deputy Caoimhin Kelleher absent due to illness.

The 32-year-old is now expected to withdraw from the Brazil squad and miss weeks as the result of a hamstring issue, though that was not the only key injury concern sustained by Liverpool against Palace.

Injury blow: Alexis Mac Allister was substituted at half-time of Liverpool’s win at Crystal Palace (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Influential midfielder Mac Allister was replaced by Dominik Szoboszlai at the break at Selhurst, with Slot subsequently confirming a groin issue.

He is unsure if the former Brighton star will still be able to join up with Argentina for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Bolivia.

"He went off because of an injury, but how bad it is is difficult for me to judge in this moment,” Slot said of Mac Allister.

"He could have continued playing, like you saw, because it didn't happen one second before half-time, but he felt it a bit too much and he said he didn't think it was good to keep on playing because you never know if you will make it worse.

"Now, what is the exact situation, can he go to Argentina? Can he play over there? That is difficult for me to tell you now. [It's an issue] in his groin area."

Liverpool were again without summer signing Federico Chiesa against Palace due to injury, while Harvey Elliott remains out with a foot issue.

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