Liverpool dealt early defensive blow as Joe Gomez forced off in first pre-season friendly
Liverpool suffered an early setback in their opening pre-season friendly of the US tour, with Joe Gomez forced off injured inside the first 10 minutes against Sunderland in Nashville.
The Reds’ longest-serving current player started as captain, partnering young centre-back Mor Talla Ndiaye. But his night was over almost immediately.
Just eight minutes had been played when the 29-year-old went down and required treatment. It was clear he could not continue. Although Gomez managed to get back to his feet, he walked straight off the pitch. Andoni Iraola took no chances, replacing him with Ifeanyi Ndukwe. Kostas Tsimikas assumed the captain’s armband.
As Lewis Steele noted on X, the sight of Liverpool’s number 2 sitting on the ground was one no Reds supporter wanted to see. “The need for a defender gets even bigger,” he wrote.
The injury comes on top of another defensive setback before kick-off. New arrival Jeremy Jacquet missed the game with a minor knock, though he is expected to resume training during the US tour.
Even before half-time of the first pre-season match, Liverpool have already lost two centre-backs to injury. Virgil van Dijk has yet to return after his World Cup commitments with the Netherlands, while Giovanni Leoni continues his recovery from an ACL rupture.
Games like this offer a chance to blood young players and assess them at first-team level. Yet the rapid introduction of Ndiaye and Ndukwe as the centre-back pairing only highlights the limited options available to Iraola.
Iraola made clear in his introductory press conference that further signings are required this summer. After tonight’s events, those calls are likely to grow louder.
Hopefully Gomez’s knock is not serious and he can return soon. Still, the need for defensive reinforcements before the transfer window closes is now impossible to ignore.
