Premier League champions Liverpool have been dealt a major injury blow ahead of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg clash at Galatasaray on Tuesday.
First-choice goalkeeper Alisson Becker and Italian forward Federico Chiesa were not among the traveling contingent to Turkey for the clash due to injury setbacks.
Alisson complained of some discomfort in Monday’s training session and will sit out the encounter as he will not be risked with a run of tough games still to come.
The Brazilian has featured 35 times across all competitions this season, including five in the Champions League and will not play a part in this encounter.
Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili will deputize in the absence of Alisson, having already made 11 appearances across all competitions in the current campaign.
Meanwhile, Chiesa also misses out after missing Monday’s training session entirely, leaving Liverpool short of options in attack.
The former Juventus winger was initially excluded from the club’s squad for the competition, before he was later reinstated following an ACL injury to young defender Giovanni Leoni on his debut.
Chiesa played four times during the league-phase, scoring during the 6-0 win over Qarabag in their final group game.
Liverpool travel to the RAMS Park for the second time this season, losing 1-0 in their first meeting earlier in the season.
Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen scored the only goal of that encounter from the penalty spot and the Reds will be wary of the threat posed by the forward, who already has seven goals in the competition this season.
The Premier League champions were eliminated at this stage last season after going down to eventual champions Paris Saint-Germain and will be hoping to avoid the same fate this time around.
The return leg of the meeting will hold at Anfield next Wednesday, with the winner of the tie set to face either Chelsea or PSG in the quarterfinals.
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