Arne Slot has pulled upon his previous experience at Feyenoord in dealing with Alisson‘s “uncommon” injuries, with Liverpool staff “looking into” his record.
Alisson picked up his second injury of the season in the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace before the international break, and now won’t return until after the next one in November.
That means Caoimhin Kelleher is set to step in for the next seven games at least, with the Irishman given another extended run in the season after a productive spell last season.
As with last term, Alisson is out nursing a hamstring problem, with the Brazilian’s injury record the worst of any goalkeeper in the Premier League.
“It’s a bit uncommon for goalkeepers,” Slot admitted in his pre-Chelsea press conference.
“For me, it’s common, because the goalkeeper I had at Feyenoord (Justin Bijlow) also had his issues with injuries and also muscle injuries.
“But that’s not what you see a lot, so these two are more an exception.
“We are looking into it, what could be the reason. One of the things we all know is if you had one then the chances of getting another one always go up.
“We’ve tried to be really careful with him.”
As he continued, Slot looked to clear up any confusion over his stance on 12.30pm kickoffs in the Premier League, insisting the timing was no issue for him.
He did, however, stress his belief that even those who played at home in the Champions League in midweek should not then be given the early slot in the league at the weekend.
“That might also be something we should take into consideration,” he said.
“For me as well, although it’s so hard to change all 11 players only because you play two days later.
“In retrospect I might have chosen Caoimh [against Bologna] instead of Alisson, but like you said, you don’t expect a goalkeeper to pick up a muscle injury.
“I know one thing, what is very good in Holland is that I’m 99.9 percent sure that all the teams that play Champions League in the upcoming week don’t play on a Sunday [before].
“They get extra rest to be the best possible way prepared for the Champions League game.
“That is not something that is common here in England, we just hear ‘you have so many good players, you get your results in Europe no matter what, we decide the fixture list and we don’t take Champions League into account’.”
Liverpool have a number of doubts heading into Sunday’s clash with Chelsea, with Alisson one of two confirmed out while at least four others are uncertain.
