Liverpool duo Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones leave in protective gear but Jurgen Klopp has positive Darwin Nunez injury update

Jurgen Klopp was left focusing on the positives after Liverpool’s comfortable victory over Brentford, despite suffering three fresh injury blows in a disastrous first-half in west London.

The Reds were boosted by the return of Mohamed Salah, who got a goal and assist in the 4-1 win, and his return is timely for the Reds who had both Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones leave the stadium on crutches and protective gear after a nightmare first 45 minutes.

Jones first went down holding his leg with just 20 minutes played at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday afternoon, with Jota then leaving the pitch on a stretcher ten minutes later after a horror incident.

Brentford’s Christian Norgaard leapt into the air to contest the ball, but Jota felt the full force of the impact as the Bees man then landed full on the in-form Liverpool star’s knee.

Klopp was spotted watching on in disbelief as two more key players were added to his injury list, and things only got worse when opening goalscorer Darwin Nunez was substituted at the break, sparking fresh injury fears over the striker ahead of the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.

While Jota and Jones could be set for lengthy spells on sidelines after being seen leaving the stadium with the aid of crutches and wearing a protective boot [Jones] and knee brace [Jota], Klopp did at least have some more positive news about Nunez.

Asked after the game if he had an update on the fitness of the trio, the Liverpool boss told talkSPORT: “Not really.

“Yes, Jots looks like something with the knee, but we don’t know the extent yet, of course not.

“Curtis got a knock on the lower shin and could be a lot, it could be nothing, we have to see that. No further assessment is possible yet.

“Darwin mentioned he feels the muscle slightly. Not bad, but slightly, so we substituted him just as a precaution. We already have enough problems so we don't want to push him through.

“That’s it, that’s the negative part of this day.”

Injuries to all three players would take Liverpool’s injury list up to ten players, with Klopp already without goalkeeper Alisson, vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold, midfield trio Dominik Szoboszlai, Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajcetic, centre-back Joel Matip and youngster Ben Doak for the trip to London.

But despite his injury nightmare, Klopp was left delighted by his team’s resiliance and performance, as they swept Brentford aside thanks to goals from Nunez, Alexis Mac Allister, Salah and Cody Gakpo.

“Obviously the positive was the game, the boys played an incredible football game against an incredibly difficult opponent,” the manager added.

“I really liked it a lot, we scored wonderful goals and could have scored more. The way we dealt with the set pieces was exceptional, and it was a super goalie performance from Caoimhin [Kelleher], he was outstanding. 

“The defending in general was really good, on the ball we were calm and direct in the right moment, we played through them and got into the box. It was one of our better games, definitely, today and I'm really happy about that.”

Asked again about his mounting injury crisis, Klopp said: “But that’s our life.

“It’s a bunch of frustrations, but I can’t remember that it was once easy since I’m here, so this is somehow the Liverpool way - we have to do it on a bit of a bumpy road, but that’s how it is, but we take that and we keep going until somebody whistles the game off or we don’t have 11 players anymore. It’s always, ‘Let’s keep going’.

“It was a top team performance today against a super difficult opponent. It was our best performance for ages. And that after our goalie [Alisson] yesterday left the pitch as well with an injury, but our 1-B version [Kelleher] came on and played an incredible game. I’m really happy that everybody can see how good he is.”