Virgil van Dijk: Liverpool defender’s hamstring injury ‘worse than first feared’, set to be out for some time

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk could be out for some time after reports claimed the hamstring injury suffered during the 3-1 defeat to Brentford on Monday is “worse than first feared”.

Van Dijk was taken off at half-time of the defeat and it was initially thought that the injury was not too bad.

However in a tweet on Wednesday morning, respected Liverpool journalist Paul Joyce said it could be more serious than expected. He is set to see a specialist later on Wednesday.

There has been no official confirmation from the club yet but that is expected to come soon.

It means that Liverpool could be forced into the transfer market to try and find a replacement depending on the severity, despite manager Jurgen Klopp saying that the club “cannot play monopoly” recently after the arrival of Van Dijk’s international team-mate Cody Gakpo at the start of the January transfer window.

“I am now seven years and a few months here and every transfer window is pretty much the same, we talk about these things as though money wouldn’t play a role,” said Klopp.

“Like, who cares? It is never like this that you could just spend money.

“I don’t want to disappoint anybody but we signed an outstanding player like Cody Gakpo and the next thing you can read is, ‘Who next?’ It is like we didn’t have a team, honestly! We cannot play like monopoly. We never did and I don’t understand it.”

Klopp did add in that press conference that a move could happen with the right situation saying “Again, if there is something we can do – and that means the right player and financial situation – we will do it. And if not, then not.”