Alexander Isak simply cannot catch a break.
The most expensive player in Premier League history is still waiting to make more than three consecutive top-flight starts for Liverpool following his $166.6 million (£125 million) move over the summer. Isak’s desperately unsuccessful battle against his own body took another negative twist on Friday night when he failed to make the matchday roster for the trip to Aston Villa.
Isak had only just come back from the treatment room against Chelsea last weekend after a “really small” injury sidelined him for the defeat to Manchester United on May 3. Liverpool’s No. 9 came on for the final 20 minutes of a limp 1–1 draw with the Blues on Saturday. While he failed to make any discernible impact—Isak didn’t take a shot, create a chance and completed just one pass—it did appear as though he had at least avoided damaging himself again.
Arne Slot offered no hint that Isak would miss out at Villa Park during his midweek press conference, with focus shifted towards the health of Mohamed Salah and Florian Wirtz—both of whom made Friday’s squad.
However, Slot revealed ahead of kickoff that Isak was dealing with a “minor injury” and would not be risked. Having already sat out 28 Liverpool games through injury this season, what’s one more?
“I think it’s something we all understand,” Slot argued, “if you miss preseason, if you then have a broken leg, when you are coming back. We’ve been really careful with him.”
Liverpool Confirmed Lineup vs. Aston Villa
Starting XI: Giorgi Mamardashvili; Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konaté, Virgil van Dijk, Milos Kerkez; Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones, Alexis Mac Allister; Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo, Rio Ngumoha.
Substitutes: Freddie Woodman (GK), Florian Wirtz, Mohamed Salah, Federico Chiesa, Andy Robertson, Trey Nyoni, James McConnell, Mor Talla Ndiaye, Will Wright.
There was good news for Slot to kickstart the weekend: Wirtz and Salah were both deemed fit enough for the substitutes bench. The German playmaker has been struggling with a stomach infection in recent weeks while Salah’s Liverpool swansong threatened to fizzle out as he watched on from the sidelines.
As Slot predicted in the week, the club’s waning talisman would be available for “a few minutes” in the last away game of the season. In the end, he was given a quarter of an hour.
When Will Alexander Isak Return From Injury?
Isak’s absence is not expected to be a long one. Liverpool are thought to be “hopeful” that their marquee summer signing will be fit enough for the season finale against Brentford at Anfield on Sunday, May 24, per the Daily Mail’s Lewis Steele.
It remains to be seen how long Isak will be risked for next weekend, yet there aren’t enough minutes in any game to make up for all the time he has missed this term.
The club’s record arrival has scored just one Premier League home goal since extracting himself from the tangled web of Newcastle United last summer. He’s scored more top-flight goals at Anfield against Liverpool (two) than he has for his current employers.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why Alexander Isak Wasn’t Playing for Liverpool vs. Aston Villa.
