Liverpool forward suffers concussion blow to join nine teammates on sidelines
Liverpool hotshot Jayden Danns has been ruled out of the Reds' Europa League last-16 clash with Sparta Prague.
Danns, 18, suffered a concussion when he collided with Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels on Saturday, resulting in a booking. The forward, who scored his first two senior goals for Liverpool in last Wednesday's 3-0 victory over Southampton to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals, subsequently wasn't named in the Reds' 23-man travelling squad for their trip to Prague on Thursday.
That's like nine other players currently sidelined, namely Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Stefan Bajcetic, Thiago Alcantara, Diogo Jota, Ben Doak, Curtis Jones, Ryan Gravenberch. In their absences, manager Jurgen Klopp has called up a number of highly-rated academy prospects, with forward trio Kaide Gordon, Mateusz Musialowski and Lewis Koumas all making the trip the Czech capital ahead of their round-of-16 first leg.
Talismanic winger Mohamed Salah has also travelled, having missed Liverpool's last four games in all competitions after returning against Brentford last month - his one and only appearance since January 18 when he suffered an injury during Egypt's unsuccessful Africa Cup of Nations campaign. Klopp plans to give Salah some much-needed minutes against Czech champions Sparta, explaining at his pre-match press conference: "Yeah, Mo travelled. He is with us, he trained two days, so full of energy. We have to see.
"But it is so good that he is back, that is really good for us and you can see in his face he is very happy. A very unlucky situation with being that long out and in for a moment, if you want, at Brentford, played an incredible game there and was out again.
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"That's how it is. We want to be careful, we have to be careful, but in the middle of a super-intense period of the season we need everybody and now let's see how long we can use him. That's how it is with him and with others as well. Yeah, just good news."
Your turn! How should Liverpool line up against Sparta Prague? Give us your XI in the comments section.
Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels collided Jayden Danns (PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)Also available again is midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, who made a late cameo in Saturday's last-gasp 1-0 win away to Forest, with Darwin Nunez scoring in the 99th minute. "It is good that he is back," Klopp said of the Hungary international.
"He loves playing football. Being injured is for him tough, tough, tough. It was not an injury where it was painful every day or whatever, he was just not allowed to train properly, how it is with muscle injuries.
"So, that's the reason why we had to be careful in his rehab, because if you would have asked Dom, he could have trained completely with the team for two or three weeks, but all the medical advice told us no, we have to wait. And that's what we did. Now he is back, played a few minutes, is in the squad. All the rest, we will see."
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