Thiago Alcantara cited as Liverpool star out for ‘months’ – expert
Hiring his own personal fitness team and pushing himself too hard early on in his Liverpool spell has resulted in more problems for Arthur Melo.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.
Arthur joined Liverpool on loan from Juventus back in September, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely that the Reds will follow up on the £32.3million offer [Sky Sports] to buy the Brazilian permanently after his poor start to the season.
The 26-year-old underwent surgery for a thigh problem he picked up in training back in October, and he’s still yet to make his Premier League debut for the Reds.
As reported by the Daily Mail back on 23 September, Arthur hired his own personal fitness team in an attempt to hit the ground running at Anfield.
But Dinnery believes Arthur likely pushed himself too much early on in his Liverpool career and is now paying the price.
“He was already playing catch up in terms of his fitness and this sort of setback has come about probably because he pushed himself a little bit too hard, involving his own personal trainers,” Dinner told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“It was very unfortunate and now we’re coming into the second half of the campaign where we’re talking about a player who has already been on the sidelines for several months.
“He hasn’t had that opportunity to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League in terms of its intensities.
“He hasn’t really experienced it other than that little taste of training with teammates, so there’s always that lack of adaptation as well, which is a concern.
“And then, you factor in the players Liverpool has in and around those positions. You factor in how Liverpool are more than capable of going on a really good run and getting those performances and results.
“Suddenly you start to look at how few minutes he’s actually going to be handed by Jurgen Klopp.
“We’ve also seen the return of Oxlade-Chamberlain at Liverpool this week and then also the likes of Fabinho, Harvey Elliott, Jordan Henderson, Fabio Carvalho and Thiago.
“There’s a lot of competition in there, so ironically he may end up waiting on somebody picking up an injury or suspension to get those opportunities.“
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