Jurgen Klopp discusses centre-back transfer plans after Joel Matip injury

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is worried that the ankle injury Joel Matip sustained in Thursday night’s 3-1 win over Tottenham is ‘serious’, but admitted the Reds are still unlikely to move for a new centre-back before Monday’s transfer deadline because of a lack of options on the market.

Liverpool have been forced to cope without first-choice starting centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez because of long-term knee injuries. Fabinho has been standing in at the back for most of the season but he too was missing on Thursday because of a minor muscle complaint.

Matip, who has had his own niggling fitness problems all season, started against Spurs alongside Jordan Henderson at the back. The former Schalke star was Liverpool’s last recognised senior centre-back but had to be withdrawn at half-time and was replaced by Nat Phillips.

Club staff and fans alike wait nervously for a verdict on suspected ankle ligament damage.

If Matip is to be sidelined for a number of weeks, it leaves 23-year-old Nathaniel Phillips, who had played just once for Liverpool before this season and was due to spend the campaign on loan in the Championship, and 19-year-old Rhys Williams, who was on loan in the sixth tier of English football last season, as the only specialised centre-backs available to Klopp.

With Dejan Lovren also not replaced, it isn’t that Klopp doesn’t want to bring in another centre-back to ease the problem. Yet with slim pickings on the market, Liverpool will struggle to find one of sufficient quality for an acceptable price and now appear likely to push on without.

“If you have a centre-half available at a reasonable price, and one with the quality we need, then send me a message,” Klopp told BT Sport after watching his side beat Tottenham 3-1.

“We thought [about making signings] and we think the whole time but it's about doing the right thing. We need to find the right player. It's incredible what's happening in the defensive line."

“It's not just about bringing a body in. Nat and Rhys have done so well. The situation is unbelievably strange. We will see what we do but this [injury] did not help. It looks like something serious.”

90min previously revealed that Liverpool were not against signing a centre-back this month and had a flexible stance on the matter. But any target has to make financial sense, underlined now by what Klopp has said about a ‘reasonable price’.

Liverpool are looking at the situation from a long-term perspective as they contemplate a future without Van Dijk, who will be 30 in July and moving towards the final stage of his career. David Ornstein of The Athletic has also previously said that have been fully geared towards the summer and that was not likely to change even with a run of poor results, which has happened.

Overall, it has been Liverpool’s intention to ultimately to bring in another centre-back since Lovren was sold to Zenit St Petersburg last summer and scouts have been tracking Schalke's Ozan Kabak, Villarreal's Pau Torres, Shakhtar Donetsk's Mykola Matvienko, Sevilla's Jules Kounde and RB Leipzig's Dayot Upamecano since then as they assess potential options.

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