Alisson injury: Progress and potential return date for Liverpool goalkeeper

To mark Alisson’s 100th clean sheet as a Liverpool player, Jurgen Klopp handed the Brazilian a shirt with his usual number one followed by two more zeroes on the back.

Klopp joked that the digits represented the “100 lifesaving saves” his keeper makes each season. Alisson fired back: “It might have been more.” “Maybe he is right,” Klopp conceded with a chuckle.

Alisson will struggle to add to his pile of clean sheets after pulling up with an injury at the end of a 1-1 draw away to Manchester City in late November – a game in which Liverpool’s custodian was unusually skittish, yet still conspired to make a couple of crucial stops.

Here’s the latest updates on Alisson’s fitness.

Alisson’s kicking throughout the top-of-the-table bout against Manchester City at the Etihad had been erratic. It was his sliced volley that Nathan Ake intercepted before weaving forward and teeing up Erling Haaland’s opener.

By the end of the match, Alisson still hadn’t sharpened up. As the pounding hooves of Haaland came charging towards him, a dozing Alisson was rushed into a clearance. If the damage hadn’t been done with that over-extension, it was clear that something was amiss when the Brazilian half-heartedly prodded at an even weaker kick in the same phase of play. Once the ball had gone out for a corner, Alisson dropped to the turf clutching his right hamstring.

Klopp, with no substitutions available, watched on in horror as his goalkeeper groggily returned to his feet for the set piece. Haaland rose to meet the delivery but guided it narrowly wide of a goal barely guarded by an immobile Alisson. Mercifully for Liverpool, the final seconds passed by without incident.

The German coach conceded that the damage done to Alisson was not as severe as first feared. “No,” Klopp said, “but bad enough. Bad enough.”

Ahead of Liverpool’s Europa League tie against LASK on Thursday 30 November, Klopp revealed the extent of Alisson’s injury. “He will not play tomorrow, not on Sunday, probably not the week after. Then it should be kind of OK.”

By Klopp’s reckoning, Alisson will definitely be sidelined for the visit of LASK and Fulham’s Premier League trip to Anfield on 3 December. As the winter fixture list gathers steam, Liverpool have two more top-flight matches in the following week, although relegation-threatened Sheffield United and out-of-form Crystal Palace are hardly the most inhospitable hosts.

If Alisson is not rushed back for Liverpool’s final Europa League group game against Union Saint-Gilloise – which will likely be a dead rubber – then the Brazilian may not feature until the derby with Manchester United on 17 December.

In the same game against City, Liverpool lost Diogo Jota to an injury which “will take a little bit longer” according to Klopp. Yet, while the Reds can call upon the likes of Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo to fill in for Jota in the forward line, Alisson’s absence leaves a far greater hole.

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