Virgil van Dijk’s hamstring injury ‘worse than expected

Vir­gil van Dijk is due to see a spe­cial­ist as he fears his ham­string injury is worse than orig­i­nal­ly thought.

The cen­tre-back was replaced at half-time in a 3–1 loss to Brentford.

Van Dijk picked up a ham­string strain in the first half and had an ini­tial con­sul­ta­tion with his specialist.

Liv­er­pool are await­ing a deci­sion on the extent of the injury and whether he will be out for longer, reports The Athletic.

When asked about Van Dijk’s injury after the clash with Bees, Jür­gen Klopp hoped it would not be too serious.

He said, “Vir­gil felt a lit­tle mus­cle, but he said he was fine and he’s very sen­si­tive about these things.”

He had this feel­ing of “I don’t want to miss an oppor­tu­ni­ty.” The phys­io­ther­a­pist seemed very hap­py when he said he did­n’t want to take the risk. It was­n’t an injury, just a feel­ing of strength. ”

Mean­while, the Reds are set to return cen­tre-back Bil­ly Coume­tio, who has been loaned out to Rapid Vienna.

Klopp also has Joel Matip, Ibrahi­ma Konate, Joe Gomez and Nat Phillips and is unlike­ly to sign a defend­er this month.

Instead, Liv­er­pool have secured strik­er Cody Gakpo and are said to be explor­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of sign­ing Wolves mid­field­er Mateus Nunes.

Liv­er­pool are report­ed­ly set to sign the Por­tuguese play­er for €50m, but man­ag­er Julen Lopetegui has ruled out leav­ing the club.

And Klopp hint­ed that spend­ing would be capped after Liv­er­pool sug­gest­ed ‘we can’t play Monopoly’.