Man City vs Liverpool: Slot shares injury update ahead of Saturday clash
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has indicated that Alexander Isak might make an appearance in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final clash, April 4, 2026, against Manchester City, while also delivering the latest update on Liverpool’s squad fitness situation.
The Dutch coach confirmed that Jeremie Frimpong and Mohamed Salah are expected to be in contention for selection in the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final fixture, although goalkeeper Alisson Becker is still unavailable due to injury.
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Below are the updated injury and fitness details shared by Slot during his pre-match media briefing earlier on Friday, April 3, 2026.
Becker
Slot confirmed that the Brazilian goalkeeper will not recover in time for the upcoming matches against Paris Saint-Germain, and his return will take longer than initially hoped. However, the coaching staff remain optimistic he will regain full fitness before the season concludes.
“He will not be part of the Paris Saint-Germain games as well. He will be out for a bit longer. Towards the end of the season we expect him to be fit again.”
Frimpong
The right-back has resumed full training sessions with the team and is expected to continue training ahead of the match. Despite this progress, Slot noted that Frimpong is still working toward reaching the physical level required to handle a tight match schedule, especially after returning from international duty. The manager also acknowledged the challenge of managing limited options in the right-back position and deciding how to distribute playing time.
“He seems to be OK – trained with us yesterday fully and will train with us [today] again. But he was one of the players I referred to about the Brighton game. I think in the second half, you could see that he still has a step to make in terms of [playing] every three days. And then coming off for the national team. Another interesting and difficult choice to make: how many minutes in which game? Because games come so fast, and as we know, we don’t have eight right full-backs available. Interesting challenge, but I faced this challenge throughout the whole season, almost, so I will find an answer.”
Isak
Slot explained that while Alexander Isak has returned to training after a lengthy absence, he is unlikely to be included in the starting lineup immediately. The striker has only recently rejoined team activities after more than three months out, and the coaching staff intends to ease him back gradually. Slot added that the unpredictable nature of cup matches, especially the possibility of extra time, makes decisions about his involvement more complicated.
“It will definitely be too fast to expect him in the starting line-up. He trained with us yesterday for the first time and today for the second time after exactly 101 days, I know this because it was told to me. So, it will take a bit of time to give him a lot of minutes. We will make sure we do the right thing in terms of building him up in minutes, but it’s a very good thing to have him on the training ground again. It would be even a better thing to have him available for games, that’s for sure.
“You can even be on the bench if you haven’t trained. But the question is: is he ready to play some minutes? That’s another question. It’s a difficult one, because we don’t play a normal game. What I mean is, it could go to extra-time, so that makes it even more complicated if you bring him in, if we think he can only play 10 minutes – if we already think this – and you bring him in 10 minutes before the end and then you go to extra-time… of course, you can take him off again if we have enough players available to bring another player in. So, yeah, maybe a few minutes but let’s wait and see how it is with him today, how he feels about it himself. It’s clear that after two training sessions, after 100 days, it would not make any sense to start him tomorrow.”
Salah
Slot also confirmed that Mohamed Salah has recovered well and is fully involved in team preparations, making him available for selection in the upcoming match.
“He is [fit]. He trained with us yesterday, he will train with us today and is available for the game tomorrow.”
