Liverpool's Premier League title chances take major hit after devastating injury update

Liverpool's Premier League title hopes have been dealt a huge blow following an injury update on a key player.

It was a rather successful weekend for Liverpool, as Jurgen Klopp's side beat Brentford 4-1 before title rivals Manchester City dropped points in a 1-1 draw with Chelsea.

Goals from Darwin Nunez, Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and a returning Mohamed Salah earned Liverpool the win in London, with the collective performance suggesting the title race will go down to the wire.

City's failure to beat Chelsea means that Klopp's side are four points clear at the top of the table having played one more game than City.

However, Liverpool's win did come at a potentially significant cost.

Both Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota were replaced during the first half of Saturday's win, the latter leaving the field on a stretcher after injuring his knee.

Both were spotted leaving the Gtech Community Stadium on crutches, though Darwin Nunez - who was substituted at half-time with an issue - appeared to be fine.

Now it looks like Jota could be sidelined for quite some time.

According to Portuguese publication Record, Jota will miss the next two months after damaging cruciate ligaments in his left knee.

The good news for Liverpool is that the Portugal international has reportedly not sustained serious damage, and so should return before the end of the campaign and before Euro 2024.

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Jota has already spent time on the sidelined this term; the attacker missed eight games in December after suffering a muscle injury.

The 27-year-old has scored six goals and provided four assists in 11 matches since returning to action at the end of last year.

Jota is expected to miss the top-of-the-table clash with City on March 10, as well as the Merseyside derby on March 17 and a trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on April 6.

The attacker will be absent when Liverpool take on Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.

Klopp has a mounting number of injury concerns, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic and Joel Matip all missing the trip to Brentford.

Dominik Szoboszlai will return for the cup final if he recovers from illness.

Topics: Liverpool, Premier League, Diogo Jota, Jurgen Klopp, Manchester City, Carabao Cup, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Darwin Nunez, Curtis Jones

Alex Brotherton

Alex Brotherton is a Sports Trends Writer at SPORTbible. He has previously worked with publications including the Manchester Evening News, GOAL and BBC Sport. He is a football fanatic, but also dabbles in tennis and American football. He enjoys running, cooking and watching non-league football.

@alex_brotherton