LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) – Liverpool will be without Diogo Jota until after the international break, manager Arne Slot revealed on Tuesday, a blow ahead of their fourth-round League Cup match at Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday and amid a gruelling stretch of games.
Jota, who has four goals in 10 games across all competitions this season, has not played since suffering a chest injury in the win over Chelsea on Oct. 20. When asked whether he would return before the November international break, Slot said “no”.
Slot also hinted that Federico Chiesa could be facing a long-term layoff. The Italian was the club’s only major close-season signing but has struggled since joining from Juventus. He has made just three appearances and has not played in more than a month after struggling with fitness.
“It’s always difficult to say because he goes a bit up and down so sometimes he’s there with us and trains a few days and then goes out for an injury again,” Slot said.
“I don’t want to put days or weeks on it because I think we just have to make sure he gets in the best possible shape and don’t put any pressure on him.”
Defender Conor Bradley could feature on Wednesday, Slot said, after a return to full training, a bit of good news for a squad already without both goalkeeper Alisson (hamstring) and Harvey Elliott (foot) until after the international break.
Slot’s side trail Manchester City by a point in the Premier League standings after their 2-2 draw with Arsenal on Sunday.
The Brighton match comes amid a challenging stretch of seven games in three weeks for Liverpool. While Slot had the luxury to rotate players in their 5-1 League Cup thrashing of West Ham United last month, numbers have dwindled since then.
“I don’t think it’s possible to do the same as we did against West Ham for the simple reason that we’ve got some injuries so we don’t have enough players to change them all, if I wanted that,” the Dutchman said.
“I think if you look at our schedule and the amount of times we have less days to recover apart from our opponent, it might be a moment for us to see some other players but I first have to see how fit everybody is.”
Brighton are sixth in the league table and beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 in the League Cup last month.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris and Christian Radnedge)
