Eight players face ban threat as Liverpool missing four injured for Galatasaray
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Liverpool Echo IconSportFootballLiverpool FCLiverpool take on Galatasaray in Turkey in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie on Tuesday eveningLiverpool are back in action on Tuesday evening with a showdown at Galatasaray in their Champions League round of 16 first leg. And the Reds are likely to have the same squad available that won through to the FA Cup quarter-finals with victory at Wolves on Friday evening.Alexander Isak is edging nearer a return to first-team training but remains absent as he continues his rehabilitation from surgery on an ankle injury that included a fractured fibula after being caught by Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven when scoring Liverpool's opener in the 2-1 away win before Christmas.Wataru Endo, though, faces a battle to play again this season after undergoing surgery on the left ankle he injured at Sunderland last month.Both right-back Conor Bradley and teenage centre-back Giovanni Leoni have already been ruled out for the campaign.
Bradley underwent knee surgery in January while Leoni had an operation on his ACL back in September.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook pageAlexis Mac Allister was forced off late on at Wolves on Friday but Reds boss Arne Slot said afterwards he does not anticipate any problems with the midfielder's fitness.
Florian Wirtz returned at Molineux after three games out with a cameo from the bench.Curtis Jones, though, runs the risk of being suspended for the Anfield return against Galatasaray on Wednesday week should he receive a booking in Istanbul.Champions League rules dictate any player who receives three yellow cards - or any subsequent odd number of bookings - from the league stage onwards is banned for the next game. And it means Galatasaray run the risk of having a host of players banned for next week's second leg with seven players all on two Champions League bookings.Goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir, defenders Ismail Jackobs, Davinson Sanchez and Abdulkerim Bardakci and forwards Roland Sallai and Victor Osimhen have all been cautioned twice in the competition this season for Galatasaray, while January loan signing Noa Lang was booked twice for parent club Napoli.The Turkish side, though, have few injury complaints, with teenage defender Arda Unyay the only player recently unavailable to have any first-team minutes this season.Choose Liverpool Echo as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.Liverpool FC