Arne Slot has confirmed that Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley will miss Liverpool’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

The Premier League leaders have been without Konate for their last three Premier League outings – winning just one of those matches and drawing the other two – with Bradley also out for the same period because of a hamstring injury.

Konate’s knee problem has seen Joe Gomez and Jarell Quansah afforded minutes alongside Virgil van Dijk in the centre of defence, while Trent Alexander-Arnold’s recovery from an injury of his own luckily coincided with Bradley’s issue.

There was hope that the two players could at least return to Liverpool’s trip squad for their weekend trip to the capital, but Slot has told his latest press conference that neither are ready to return to action.

“These are the two that are still ‘in the red’, so they don’t train with us at the moment. They are on their way back but they don’t train with the team yet,” the Dutchman said.

“That is, what I’ve said before, quite difficult,” he continued when asked about potential return timelines. “We thought, I thought, that [Diogo] Jota would have been back a bit earlier already and sometimes the end stage of rehab takes a bit longer.

“Sometimes they join [training] and then they are like, ‘I’m not completely ready to start yet.’ So, let’s wait and see but we have very good rehab personnel over here and they’ve done some good work already with Alisson [Becker] and a few others.

“The main thing is that if they come back, they are ready to come back and we must not focus on one, two or three days. It’s more important for the long term that they stay fit afterwards.

“Until now they have done really well and hopefully with Conor and Ibou the same thing happens.”

One positive for Liverpool is that Andy Robertson is available to play despite being sent off against Fulham in last Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Anfield. The Scot was dismissed for a professional foul on Harry Wilson but served his one-game ban in midweek as the straight red card applied for all domestic competitions.

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