'Hadn't trained fully': James Pearce shares what's now going on with Van Dijk ahead of Liverpool vs Southampton
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Liverpool will hope to have avoided any extra fitness problems ahead of Sunday’s trip to Southampton.
The Reds saw a whole host of players fly off around the world to play for their countries over the past 10 days.
With one or two ongoing issues already present within the Liverpool squad, Arne Slot will have been crossing everything that no further problems were inherited.
While that initially does look to have been the case, there was some mild concern over Virgil van Dijk returning early from duty with the Netherlands.
Van Dijk has not missed a minute of Liverpool’s Premier League campaign so far this season but was sent home from the Dutch camp after playing 90 minutes against Hungary on Saturday.
With a trip to his former club on the calendar for the weekend, journalist James Pearce gave an update on whether Liverpool fans should be concerned over Van Dijk’s early return to Anfield.
Liverpool assessing Virgil van Dijk
Liverpool need to be careful with Van Dijk. The 33-year-old is no spring chicken anymore and has been involved an awful lot already this season.
With the Reds having such a good defensive record this term, Van Dijk’s centre-back partnership with Ibrahima Konate has been absolutely crucial.
If he is to miss one of the games coming up, then you’d arguably want it to be Sunday’s trip to St Mary’s. However, Liverpool would ideally still want their captain available.
Speaking on The Walk On Podcast, though, Pearce suggested that the Reds are set to assess Van Dijk before deciding whether he’ll play against his former club.
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“I don’t think there’s anything too much to worry about,” says the reporter.
“I think just a bit of common sense dictating that [resting him] rather than put him through another 90 minutes especially when you look at the schedule Liverpool have got.
“He hadn’t trained fully, there’s obviously a minor issue there that I’m sure Liverpool will be assessing in the next couple of days.”
Who would play instead of Van Dijk?
We’ll likely have to wait for Slot to face the media on Friday before any clear update on Van Dijk emerges.
However, we’d suggest that the fact that he has come home is not necessarily a positive one at all.
If there is any doubt over Van Dijk ahead of critical games against Real Madrid and then Man City, then there should be no chances taken.
Although Liverpool will not underestimate Southampton, the Saints are currently bottom of the table. The Reds should be fine without him.
Instead, it would be most likely that Joe Gomez slotted in to sit alongside the in-form Konate. Let’s wait and see.
