Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Joel Matip will miss Wednesday's Champions League clash with Spartak Moscow due to injury.
The centre-back was absent for Saturday's 5-1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion having picked up a knock during the midweek win over Stoke City, with Liverpool playing a makeshift back three of Dejan Lovren, Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum as a result.
Klopp admitted that he was short of options at the back for the trip to the Amex Stadium, but he does not expect to be without Matip for too long.
"He has hurt his muscle. I don't know how long exactly he'll be out, but he's definitely not playing Wednesday. A month? No, I don't think so. But as always, it's possible. We have to wait. But it's possible that it will be shorter. We will see," he told the club's official website.
"Emre needs to do that, like Gini can do that. They have to do it, we don't have anybody else. I enjoyed it. It was like 'wow, interesting'. We had 20 minutes in training and then we spoke for a little bit in the team meeting before the game again about it.
"But it's not long. It was clear it wouldn't be perfect, but the boys were ready to cope with the difficulties of the new system. They did really well."
Liverpool will qualify as Group E winners if they beat Spartak at Anfield.
Barney Corkhill
