Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has hinted that Joel Matip won’t necessarily be released at the end of his contract in the wake of suffering a season-ending ACL injury this week.
With ACL recovery typically anything from seven to ten months or longer, Matip won’t be fit to play again until after his existing deal at Anfield expires at the end of June. It raised the question of whether the 32-year-old has already played his last game for Liverpool, as well as the possibility that Matip could find himself unemployed and still not fully fit come the summer.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Klopp appeared to dismiss the idea that Liverpool would let Matip go at the end of his contract, adding that he personally feels the player deserves a new one.
“I’m pretty sure the club will show their class, just as they should,” Klopp explained.
“I’m pretty sure they have told Joel already whatever happens, as long as he’s injured everything’s fine, and now we have to make a decision with Joel how it looks after that. That’s a normal thing to do but he deserves all the support from us, and he will get it.
“I would say [that he deserves a new deal], but it’s not my decision. I cannot sign the papers.”
Liverpool didn’t sign a new centre-back coming into this season because of the emergence of Jarell Quansah from the youth ranks. But Matip’s injury, on top of the fact that Joe Gomez has been increasingly used as depth or cover in both full-back role, threatens to leave the Reds short.
90min understands that Liverpool had plans to recruit a new centre-back in the summer of 2024, but are considering whether to bring that forward to the January transfer window instead.
Goncalo Inacio, Lucas Beraldo, Piero Hincapie, Nico Schlotterbeck and Arthur Theate are among the options to have been scouted in previous months. But the more urgent need for reinforcement has left Liverpool reconsidering names as well as timing, knowing that at least some of the players near the top of the list are unlikely to be available at this time of year.
As an alternative, Bayer Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah is a potential deal Liverpool feel is more feasible. Wolfsburg’s Maxence Lacroix and Nice’s Jean-Clair Todibo, the latter linked with Manchester United, are two other options for Liverpool. Other players are likely to be considered too.
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