Liverpool suffer new injury blow before Burnley clash as Arne Slot details Alexander Isak plan

Liverpool have been hit with a new injury blow ahead of their Premier League showdown with Turf Moor at Burnley on Sunday afternoon.

The Reds are bidding to make it four for four in 2025-26 after coming up trumps against Bournemouth, Newcastle United and most recently Arsenal - courtesy of a wonderful Dominik Szoboszlai free kick - in August.

Liverpool hold the only perfect Premier League record for the season and have therefore cemented themselves at the summit of the top-flight rankings, although six teams are within touching distance.

Key to the Reds' early-season success has been their strong squad availability, although Arne Slot will have to make do without one of his long-serving midfielders for the clash with the newly-promoted side in gameweek four.

The Dutchman confirmed to reporters in his pre-game press conference that Curtis Jones picked up an unspecified problem in the win over Arsenal, and the Englishman will sit out the trip to Turf Moor.

Jones ruled out of Liverpool's clash with Burnley amid Jeremie Frimpong hope

"Curtis Jones, of course, I don’t know if you knew, but he got injured in the last game, so he will not be available for the game against Burnley," Slot told the media.

"The rest of them I think all came back without a problem - and that’s not always the situation. We train for the first time today with them, with most of them - the non-internationals did train with the U21s this week already."

Slot did not directly mention Jeremie Frimpong, who has been sidelined since suffering a hamstring injury on the opening day of the season against Bournemouth, but the right-back was seen in training earlier this week and is on course to be available.

Slot could therefore be facing the best kind of dilemma at right-back, where Szoboszlai has excelled in Frimpong's absence, but the Liverpool manager should not be facing such a quandary in the number nine spot.

Sunday could potentially mark Alexander Isak's debut for Liverpool following his £125m deadline-day move from Newcastle United, as the Sweden striker featured as a late substitute in his nation's 2-0 World Cup Qualifying loss to Kosovo during the international break.

Slot details Isak plan ahead of possible Liverpool debut

However, Isak has not started a competitive or non-competitive match since the end of the 2024-25 season, and Slot has confirmed that it will likely be a matter of weeks before the 25-year-old can complete 90 minutes on a regular basis.

"Don’t expect him every single game 90 minutes on the pitch – that’s definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks," the 46-year-old said of his record signing.

"He missed a proper pre-season, I think he missed three or four months of team sessions, so now we have to build him up gradually with us playing so many games and [having] very little training time.

"So, that’s going to be a challenge but we’ve signed him not only for the upcoming two weeks, we’ve signed him, I think, for six years so this is what we have to keep in mind and what the fans have to keep in mind.

"If they see that I take him off at a certain moment or I only bring him in for a small amount of minutes, that’s all for the long-term fitness of the player."

When fit, Isak is set to battle fellow new signing Hugo Ekitike for the number nine spot in Slot's starting XI, but Emile Heskey believes that the two can start up front together on one condition.