Joe Gomez is facing a fresh spell on the sidelines for Liverpool.
The defender’s injury woes continued on his return to action in the FA Cup exit to Plymouth earlier this month, which came two months since his last appearance.
Gomez has seen regular first-team opportunities severely impacted by lay-offs during his decade-long spell at Anfield and is now facing another period out.
Arne Slot revealed on Tuesday that the 27-year-old’s hamstring injury has put paid to his involvement in the upcoming Premier League encounter with Aston Villa.
He said: “Joe will take quite a long time.
“He is going to be out for numerous weeks because of a hamstring injury. He tries to do everything to be with the team, he worked really hard to come back.
“Then the first game he came back after two or three minutes we saw him making a sprint.
“Now he’s out for weeks again. That’s always very hard for a player, in every part of the season, let alone in the part of the season everybody is looking forward to.”
The Liverpool head coach dismissedd fears that Gomez could be ruled out for the remainder of the season but has not discounted the possibility of corrective surgery.
“He will miss large parts of the end of the season, but we expect him to be back in the end phase of the season,” said Slot.
“He might [need surgery], but that’s still something we have to assess.”