April 04, (THEWILL) – Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has been ruled out of the team’s upcoming English Premier League match against Chelsea due to an illness.
The Dutchman reportedly missed training ahead of Tuesday’s game at Stamford Bridge. This comes as a blow to Liverpool, who are looking to end a run of three successive defeats on either side of the international break.
Van Dijk has previously missed seven games with a hamstring injury in January and February, which resulted in demoralising defeats for the Reds.
Manager Jurgen Klopp made six changes to the starting lineup for the Chelsea game, with Mohamed Salah surprisingly named on the bench. Joe Gomez and Konstantinos Tsimikas have replaced full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson, while Curtis Jones, Joel Matip, Darwin Nunez and Roberto Firmino have been brought in. Alexander-Arnold and Robertson have also been dropped to the bench.
On the other side, Chelsea’s interim head coach Bruno Saltor has made two changes to the team that lost 2-0 to Aston Villa on Saturday. N’Golo Kante will captain the team, while Wesley Fofana will also make his first EPL start since last August. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mykhailo Mudryk will be on the bench after starting the defeat against Villa.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
