Trent Alexander-Arnold is out for four weeks with a knee injury in a damaging blow to Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes.
The England international will be out for around a month and will be joined on the sidelines by Georginio Wijnaldum who also has a knee problem and is a doubt for the game with Crystal Palace this weekend.
The 20-year-old will miss four league matches – against Palace, Leicester, West Ham and Bournemouth – but should be fit for the Champions League last-16 ties with Bayern Munich next month.
The Reds now face a selection crisis at right-back after they allowed Nathaniel Clyne to head to Bournemouth on loan.
Jurgen Klopp will have to choose between James Milner or Fabinho as stop gaps or a combination of youngsters Curtis Jones, Rafa Camacho and Ki-Jana Hoever to fill in.
Camacho was set to go out on loan to Sporting CP last week until Jurgen Klopp pulled the plug.
The German is a big fan of Camacho, blooding him on last year’s pre-season tour, and decided he wanted to keep the 18-year-old utility man around his first-team squad.
Curtis Jones was handed his senior debut in the FA Cup defeat to Wolves and may be first in line to replace Alexander-Arnold, while 16-year-old Ki-Jana Hoever is the most highly-rated of the bunch but was sent off in an Under-23 game this week and faces competition from his fellow academy graduates.