Joe Gomez Ready for Road to Recovery From Knee Injury

Liverpool defender Joe Gomez has vowed to come back better than ever after undergoing surgery on a serious knee injury.

The 23-year-old picked up the injury while on international duty with England and is expected to miss a large part of the current campaign while he recovers, joining centre-back partner Virgil van Dijk on the treatment table.

For Gomez, this is nothing new. Back in 2015, he suffered a season-ending ACL injury while away with England's Under-21s, while an ankle injury picked up in March 2018 (again on international duty) took a few months of his career away from him as well.

"The road to recovery has already begun," he wrote on Twitter. "I've been here before, I know what it takes and I'll be back better and stronger than ever.

"I'm obviously gutted, but this is part of God's plan and I believe everything happens for a reason.

"I'd like to thank everyone for their well wishes and messages of support. I'm focused on recovery and supporting my team mates in every way I can. See you soon."

Gomez is expected to miss a significant part of the season, and with Van Dijk also facing the prospect of missing the entire campaign, Liverpool may be left with Joel Matip as their only senior defender.

Young quarter Nat Phillips, Rhys Williams, Billy Koumetio and Sepp van den Berg are all likely to fill in at some point, as is midfielder Fabinho, but Liverpool may choose to rectify their issues by dipping into the transfer market.

RB Leipzig's Dayot Upamecano is said to be top of the Reds' wish list, but 90min understands that plenty of other names were discussed when Liverpool first began planning a route forward without Van Dijk.

Alongside Upamecano, Schalke's Ozan Kabak, Villarreal's Pau Torres, Shakhtar Donetsk's Mykola Matvienko, Sevilla's Jules Kounde have all been monitored, with Liverpool hoping to find somebody available for around £40m.

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