Liverpool ace Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looks set to the miss the entire 2018-19 season due to an injury. The England midfielder, 24, damaged multiple ligaments during the Champions League semi-final against Roma in April. Now the Reds coach Jurgen Klopp has revealed the upcoming season will be all about rehab and recovery, not getting back to first-team action.
Klopp claimed: “It feels like now is an appropriate time to tell people that for Ox this coming season will be about focusing on recovery and rehab.We have known this from pretty much the day after he got the injury and after the successful surgery, we were sure of it. There has been no change, no setback – it’s exactly on the schedule we expected and planned for. The new information is that we’re now giving more detail publicly. It is typical of Ox that he didn’t want the news to overshadow the end of the season and, to be quite honest, we thought we could wait and tell people at an appropriate time. His surgery – which he had on the day of our second leg in Roma – has been completely successful and his recovery has started superbly well.But the truth of the matter is that we are preparing this season knowing he will not be with us on the pitch for competitive matches for the majority of it. If we do see him back this season it will be a bonus.”
Oxlade-Chamberlain was in tremendous form for the Reds up until the horror injury – and Klopp can’t wait to have him back. The German chief added: “It is so important – because of how valuable and important he is to what we are looking to do here in the coming seasons – that the focus is on doing this right and not rushed.
“Ox is completely on board with this approach. He is such an outstandingly good person and someone who even when not playing is integral to the heartbeat of Melwood. I cannot wait to have him back with us for matches, but we will wait for him.We will show the patience that is required to make sure he comes back ready to continue where he left off: as one of the most outstanding performers in European football in that moment.”
The midfielder was forced from the field after 18 minutes of the Reds’ 5-2 victory in the Champions League semi-final first leg at Anfield after picking up the issue during an attempted challenge. However, Oxlade-Chamberlain will now begin a rehabilitation programme to enable him to reach full fitness again as soon as possible, returning to action next season.
A rather miraculous recovery saw Chambo named in the squad for the first match against Italy and our other two group games without actually making it onto the pitch.Then it was a matter of England missing out on a young Arsenal version of Chamberlain, this time it is a whole lot worse. That was the end of the 24-year-old’s night and he didn’t get to join in any of the fun as Liverpool ran riot.
He must have been thinking about when he picked up an injury just before the 2014 World Cup.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain while still in Arsenal, also faced an anxious wait to discover if he will suffer further FA Cup final heartache following a hamstring injury in Arsenal’s 2-0 win against Southampton last year with Arsenal’s FA Cup final against Chelsea only 16 days away. “It’s a hamstring problem but we don’t know how bad it is,” said then Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger. “I don’t know [about the FA Cup final]. He walks properly. I didn’t see any incident where he had to stop a sprint. It was more fatigue, but it’s difficult to assess so close.”