This article is part of Football FanCast’s Injury News series, which considers the impact of the latest updates on players’ fitness.
Liverpool have confirmed that Shaqiri will be out for the foreseeable future, and as a result his chances of making an impression on Jurgen Klopp have taken another hit.
What’s the latest?
The Switzerland international picked up a calf injury in September but the club are taking extra precaution over his recovery, and so his expected return has been put back until after the next international break.
Shaqiri was out of favour even before his injury, playing only 14 minutes this campaign excluding the Community Shield, and therefore the setback comes as a huge blow to his ambitions this season.
Although he will return in late November he will also take some time to rebuild his fitness, and by the point he returns he will have missed a handful of League Cup and Champions League fixtures that he is seemingly more likely to feature in given Klopp’s need to rotate his squad over a long season.
Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are evidence of that, with neither getting a starting chance in the league of late but both appearing in cup competitions, including recent outings against Genk and Arsenal.
Given the Swiss has to compete with Mo Salah for a starting berth, he has found himself in a similar predicament.
Running out of time
It has been a frustrating time on Merseyside for the winger since he joined in 2018 and his hopes of getting first-team football don’t look like they will be realised any time soon.
Shaqiri has experienced this situation before at Bayern Munich, where he made 36 starts in three years – prompting him to jump ship, and if he remains on the fringes he may be inclined to do the same at Liverpool.
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The main reason for that is his own desire to play more often, but the Reds may also be concerned with the type of injury he has suffered, as he is not a stranger to calf and muscular injuries.
When he has featured, he has often failed to reproduce the quality he showed on occasion at Stoke, with six goals and five assists in 36 games, and he lacks the pace to be a really effective option in Salah’s place.
Upon his comeback from injury he needs to have a positive injury-free run and express a desire to get into the team.
If he does that and makes a valuable contribution going forward then he could resurrect his Liverpool career.
However, given how sparsely Klopp has utilised him so far, that looks unlikely.
Time seems to be running out for him to impress and the latest injury setback certainly hasn’t aided his cause.
