Liverpool: Fans losing patience with Naby Keita after latest injury

Naby Keita is a major doubt for Liverpool ahead of their UEFA Super Cup meeting with Chelsea in Istanbul tonight.

Yesterday evening, The Mirror’s Northern Football Correspondent David Maddock tweeted that the Guinea midfielder had left the Reds’ training session prematurely with an apparent muscle problem.

Looks like bad news for #LFC with Naby Keita leaving training early here in Istanbul with what looks like a muscle problem….

— David Maddock (@MaddockMirror) August 13, 2019

Keita’s first season at Anfield in 2018/19 was disrupted by injury, limiting him to just 16 Premier League starts last season.

He missed four games with a muscular problem last autumn and was also ruled out for a spell in March before a groin injury caused him to miss the end of the season (via Transfermarkt).

During the summer, the midfielder flew home from the Africa Cup of Nations mid-tournament for an assessment by doctors at Liverpool, with Keita admitting before the finals that he was not fully fit.

The 24-year-old hasn’t started either of Liverpool’s competitive games so far this season, coming on as a substitute in the Community Shield but not making it off the bench against Norwich.

Keita is not the only first team player at Anfield who has experienced injury troubles of late. Alisson has been ruled out for several weeks with a calf injury incurred in the win over Norwich City, while Nathaniel Clyne is a long-term absentee after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament last month.

These Liverpool fans expressed frustration at Keita’s latest injury concern on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/DavidElliott720/status/1161334048746291201

It ain't going to work out for us with him. He's made of paper. Plenty of talent but physically and possibly mentally very weak. Sometimes have to run play with pain.

— Ant G *LFC 20* (@anthonyjgornall) August 13, 2019