One Liverpool star lasted just 23 minutes of his nation’s qualifier on Monday, raising concerns over his availability to face Manchester City at the weekend.
Generally speaking, Monday was a pretty good day for the Liverpool contingent on international duty.
Reds midfielder Naby Keïta found the net and provided an assist for Guinea in a 3-2 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying win over Ethiopia.
Elsewhere, Netherlands skipper Virgil van Dijk and France center-half Ibrahima Konaté both helped their teams keep clean sheets in Euro 2024 qualifying victories against Gibraltar and Ireland respectively.
At youth level, meanwhile, Mateusz Musiałowski was on target as Poland under-21s beat Albania 2-0, and Bobby Clark bagged a goal for England under-19s in a 3-1 triumph over Switzerland.
But while Cody Gakpo returned as a substitute for the Netherlands in the aforementioned clash with Gibraltar after a brief illness, the Reds were handed a fresh concern.
Left-back Kostas Tsimikas had to go off midway through the first half of Greece’s qualifier against Lithuania, which ultimately ended in a goalless draw.
According to journalist Giannis Chorianopolous, Tsimikas was suffering with a ‘right rib problem’, but it didn’t seem ‘serious’.
The 26-year-old may now undergo examinations to determine the extent of the issue before Liverpool faces Manchester City at the weekend.
Tsimikas has started two Premier League matches so far in 2023 — the 3-1 defeat at Brentford and the 2-0 win over Wolves.
Sportyhubs.com says: While Andy Robertson was always likely to start against Manchester City, Tsimikas still has an important role to play over the final eight weeks and 12 games of the season. There will be matches where he’s called upon to step in and lighten the Scotsman’s load.
Liverpool, then, will be hoping that Chorianopolous’ early assessment is correct, and will be nervously watching Robertson in action against Spain on Tuesday night.
