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Liverpool are in decent shape heading into the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle on Sunday.

So often ravaged by injuries over recent years by the time spring comes around, the Reds have a different reality this year.

Nevertheless, no matter how well Arne Slot and the Liverpool coaching staff have done in protecting players from injury, this is football, issues will happen.

One of those has cruelly come about at exactly the wrong time for Trent Alexander-Arnold.

After stretching to make a block during Tuesday’s defeat against PSG, Alexander-Arnold was forced off with a problem.

On Friday, Slot confirmed that the right-back would play no part in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final as a result.

And with Trent out, the Liverpool head coach had some interesting comments on who could come into the line-up to replace him.

Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

Tuesday really was terrible timing for Alexander-Arnold to pick up an issue.

With Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley injured, Liverpool are desperately short on right-backs.

Jarell Quansah did well against PSG after replacing Trent, but the 22-year-old is still not really a natural in the position.

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Interestingly, when asked if he was readying Quansah to fill in again – or even sticking Wataru Endo in as a stop-gap – Slot put forward another couple of solutions, including deploying midfielder Curtis Jones in defence.

“I think maybe even Curtis could play there or you could also play with a left-footed defender on the right side which is what Newcastle are doing but on the opposite side,” answered the Dutchman.

READ MORE: Arne Slot can achieve something Jurgen Klopp, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley failed to do with Carabao Cup win

“Trent is indeed not available,” he continued.

“He will not be there at the final.

The bad news regarding Alexander-Arnold looked as though it may have been compounded on Tuesday when Ibrahima Konate also hobbled off late on.

With Quansah reserve at both centre-back and right-back, Konate’s absence for Sunday would certainly require some creative thinking from Slot.

Thankfully, though, the Liverpool boss told the gathered press that he is expecting the French centre-back to be back in training on Friday.

“We had a recovery day on Wednesday and we didn’t train yesterday but I expect Konate to train with us today,” Slot said.

If all goes to plan, it’s likely that it’ll be Quansah and Konate on the right side of Liverpool’s defence at Wembley.

But if Ibou cannot quite make it, perhaps we’ll see Jones at right-back after all.
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