Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has acknowledged that the injury to Loris Karius has come at the wrong time for both the player and the club.
New signing Karius has been ruled out for up to 10 weeks after suffering a broken hand during Liverpool's 1-0 defeat to Chelsea earlier this week, leaving Simon Mignolet as the club's first-choice stopper for the first two months of the season.
Liverpool have allowed both Danny Ward and Adam Bogdan to leave Anfield during the summer, but Klopp has said that the club still have suitable backup for Mignolet with Alex Manninger and Shamal George waiting in the wings.
The 49-year-old told reporters: "It's not too cool, of course. You never want to have an injured player and the problem with injuries is that they're always at the wrong time - there is never good timing with injuries. It's not cool for the boy, it's not cool for us, but it can't be changed so we have to take it.
"We have another three goalkeepers and everybody knows about the quality of Simon Mignolet, so all good and he's made a really good impression in the first few days since he's been back in training.
"We have the very experienced Alex Manninger and the very young Shamal George. That's now the situation. It could have been worse but everybody knows a broken bone in the hand for a goalkeeper is not the best thing to have."
Liverpool continue their pre-season campaign against AC Milan in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Darren Plant
