Kenny Dalglish faces a defensive headache ahead of Liverpool’s Europa League trip to Braga tomorrow, after both Fabio Aurelio and Daniel Agger were ruled out due to injury.
Neither will be included in the travelling Reds party, which heads for Portugal today, leaving Dalglish with a decision to be made over the left-back position.
Glen Johnson is favourite to start there, with Jamie Carragher pushed out to right-back, though Dalglish has used young Scot Danny Wilson at full-back in recent weeks, and could be tempted to give the 19-year-old another European start at the Estadio AXA.
Aurelio limped out of Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Premier League leaders Manchester United after just 24 minutes with a hamstring injury, and club doctor Peter Brukner has confirmed the Brazilian will be out for at least a month.
“He’s got a significant hamstring injury,” said Brukner. “Unfortunately his body lets him down. He always plays well when he’s fit. We’ve been managing him carefully because he’s not been playing twice in a week, but this just came out of the blue.
“He had a minor adductor strain a few weeks before that. We rehabilitated him and he trained all week with no problems at all. He’ll be out for a month so that’s a blow. It’s a partial tear. It’s what we call a secondary degree hamstring. It’s similar to Martin Kelly’s, and these are three or four week injuries.
The news will come as a fresh blow to the 31-year-old, who has only just shaken off an adductor problem, and has been plagued by injuries during his five year stay at Anfield.
“He’s obviously very down,” added Brukner. “It was a sad sight to see him walking off the pitch. He’s frustrated because he was playing well on Sunday. He was looking forward to getting a run of games but it wasn’t to be.”
Agger, meanwhile, is making slow progress after suffering a calf injury in the win over Sparta Prague in the last round of the Europa League. The Dane, another who has suffered tremendously with injuries during his time on Merseyside, received a kick to the leg during the 1-0 success at Anfield a fortnight ago, and Brukner says Thursday’s clash in Portugal has come too soon for the 26-year-old.
“Daniel had a nasty kick on a joint to the side of his knee,” he said, “It’s an unusual spot to get an injury. They take time and he’s a bit of a slow healer.
“He’s still not 100 per cent so we’ll have to see if he’s fit for the game this week. But it’s more likely to be the following week.”
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