Liverpool have announced midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is likely to miss the vast majority of the 2018-19 season due to the knee injury he sustained in April.
The 24-year-old England international sat out the end of last term and the World Cup after suffering what his club have described as “multiple ligament damage” in the Champions League semi-final first leg against Roma.
The Reds have had a number of significant injuries to contend with over the past year, and here Press Association Sport looks at what has been on the list.
JOEL MATIP
Matip’s last appearance of 2017-18 came in March, with the Cameroon centre-back sustaining a thigh injury against Crystal Palace and subsequently undergoing an operation. He made his return to action last week in a pre-season friendly at Bury.
JOE GOMEZ
Gomez is another, like Oxlade-Chamberlain and Matip, whose season was ended prematurely by injury and surgery. The defender’s hopes of featuring at the World Cup – and the Champions League final – were dashed as he underwent an operation in early May to correct an ankle problem picked up while playing for England in March. He started Liverpool’s opening friendly of pre-season, a 7-0 win at Chester, on July 7.
EMRE CAN
Germany midfielder Can made what proved to be his final appearance for Liverpool, before moving on to Juventus this summer, in the Champions League final on May 26 having not played since March 17 because of a back injury.
ADAM LALLANA
Lallana’s 2017-18 campaign did not start until November due to a thigh problem and, after making three starts and 10 substitute appearances thereafter, he went to South Africa in April for specialist treatment after a hamstring injury forced him off in the Palace match on March 31.
The midfielder went on to feature in Liverpool’s final two games of the season before missing out on going to the World Cup, having only made England’s five-man standby list for the tournament. He played and scored in a 3-2 friendly win over Tranmere last week.
NATHANIEL CLYNE
Clyne injured his back last summer and did not make his first appearance of last term until the goalless Merseyside derby draw at Everton in April. The right-back featured five times before the season concluded.
DANIEL STURRIDGE
The striker did not play for Liverpool again in 2017-18 after coming on as a substitute against Spartak Moscow on December 6, with a hamstring issue sidelining him before he moved to West Brom in January on loan for the rest of the season. Sturridge was forced off on his third appearance for the Baggies on February 12 with a hamstring problem and subsequently returned to action in April.
ALBERTO MORENO
The Spanish full-back sustained an ankle injury in the Spartak Moscow match in December and was not back in the team until January 27.
SADIO MANE
Mane picked up a hamstring problem while on international duty with Senegal on October 7 and missed five Liverpool games before returning on November 4.