This article is part of Football FanCast’s Injury News series, which considers the impact of the latest updates on players’ fitness.
Andrew Robertson has revealed that he has been playing for the last two-and-a-half weeks without training.
What’s the story?
The 25-year-old Scotland international withdrew from the Tartan Army’s squad for their Euro 2020 qualifiers against Cyprus and Kazakhstan, along with Ryan Fraser and Scott McTominay.
Questions have been asked about the overall commitment to the national side, but Robertson explained: “For the last two and a half weeks, I’ve not trained at all for Liverpool. I’ve trained the day before a game, could only play the last 15 minutes against Genk in the Champions League and missed the Arsenal game in the League Cup.
“It’s a niggling injury which won’t go away unless I give it time. My ankle was already injured when a tackle from Rodri on me late in the game against Manchester City on Sunday opened it up again.”
Watch Liverpool Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below
Desperation
Robertson’s form in recent times has been magnificent, and he showed just why he’s one of the best-attacking full-backs around on Sunday with a stupendous cross for Mohamed Salah, which the Egypt international then nodded past Claudio Bravo in the Manchester City goal.
The fact that the £54m-valued 25-year-old has been playing with this injury makes his performances even more impressive, and from a stand-alone situation, it shows the former Hull man’s dedication to the cause. However, all in all, it stinks of desperation.
Playing through injury will do him no good in the long-term. As the season progresses, there will be more and more games to contend with, and the overall freshness will evaporate little by little with each passing fixture, and the recovery time will only get longer. Playing through the pain now could come back to bite Jurgen Klopp and co in the future.
He is not the only player to have been played when carrying a knock. It was the same for Salah, who was said to be a doubt for the Aston Villa game before being included in the starting XI. The fact he featured for just 65 minutes, despite the Reds trailing when he was taken off the field, indicates that it was a decision that backfired.
The desire to win the Premier League title is clearly strong, and with 12 games gone things look healthy for the Anfield outfit – they have an eight-point lead at the top. However, there are still 26 matches left of the campaign. Whilst picking up as many points as possible now will set them in good stead, being so frivolous with the health of their stars could come back and bite them.
Let Robertson’s words be a warning. They have been lucky for now that there have been no serious issues, but at some point, it may be quite the opposite.
