Injuries have undoubtedly been a significant factor in Liverpool’s campaign this season.
While the overall number of injuries may not have been overwhelming, the impact has been severe due to several long-term absences involving key players ruled out for months, or even up to a year.
Arne Slot has had to cope with a number of setbacks that have limited his ability to consistently field his strongest starting line-up, particularly in attack.
At present, Hugo Ekitike is sidelined for the foreseeable future, placing much of the goalscoring responsibility on Alexander Isak
The young French forward has performed admirably in Isak’s absence, but that stress of being the focal point has clearly taken its toll on him.
The issue for Slot is that he currently has few alternatives capable of filling the central striker role.
And this is before we even discuss the long-term injuries suffered by Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni as well as Wataru Endo, who are all ruled out for the rest of the season.
One would imagine the campaign would have been a lot easier if Slot had some of these players at his disposal to be able to rotate his options.
Even worse is the fact that Liverpool's injury struggles have been present at academy level as well.
Jayden Danns has had another very frustrating season spent on the sidelines, Wellity Lucky picked up a serious injury just as he started to break into the first-team.
And Stefan Bajcetic has been absent for the entire campaign, working on his injury problems.
Thankfully, there is a key returnee, who returned to action this week and stepped up his recovery process in James McConnell.
James McConnell made a strong impression on Slot during the Dutchman’s first season at Anfield. The Liverpool boss regularly included the former Sunderland AFC academy player in matchday squads, with most of his minutes coming in cup competitions.
Jurgen Klopp was also a big admirer of the Liverpool youngster, even playing him in the League Cup final at Wembley.
Over the summer, McConnell committed his future by signing a new long-term deal before joining AFC Ajax on loan, where he linked up with John Heitinga.
However, his spell in the Netherlands was cut short in February, as injury forced a return to Liverpool’s AXA Training Centre.
But he's now finally back, and stepping up his recovery process.
McConnell has played two games in the last week – both friendlies for the Reds' U21 side.
Lewis Bower reported that he featured in a 6-0 win for Liverpool’s reserve team, racking up 45 minutes under his belt.
