Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, faces a dilemma ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to Brighton as Curtis Jones serves the first game of a three-match suspension.
Jones was sent off in the first half of Liverpool’s defeat at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend after his challenge on Yves Bissouma prompted a VAR review.
Referee Simon Hooper had initially shown him a yellow card, but he upgraded it to a red after watching the incident again at the pitchside monitor.
Liverpool launched an appeal, having successfully seen a red card for Alexis Mac Allister against Bournemouth overturned earlier in the season, but the ban was upheld.
Jones has started his side’s last four matches in the league, but Klopp may now have to turn to either Wataru Endō or Ryan Gravenberch, both of whom arrived in the summer..
Gravenberch would be a direct replacement for Jones as the left-sided number eight, while Endō would replace Mac Allister as the holding midfielder, enabling the Argentine to move further up the pitch.
