Joel Matip has remarkably become Liverpool's third senior central defender to be ruled out for the rest of the season.
The champions swooped for two signings on transfer deadline day, completing deals for Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak but the business was conducted against a background of Matip being told he had suffered a similar fate to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez.
Matip went to see a specialist on Monday rather than reporting to the club’s Kirkby training base and discovered he had damaged ankle ligaments so severely at Tottenham in a challenge with Son Heung-min last Thursday that he will not play again for the rest of the campaign.