Amid Alisson Becker's impassioned address following last week's Champions League exit to Real Madrid, the Liverpool goalkeeper briefly pondered on where things had gone wrong this season.
Alisson: "We had injuries, I think we don’t like to talk about it in football,"
"We’re not going to use it as an excuse, but the injuries certainly hurt us. Now we only have one player left out, so that’s no longer an excuse."
With the Reds hopeful Luis Diaz will be back in team training when those players not on international duty reconvene at the start of next week, it means Thiago is, at present, the only senior squad member in the treatment room.
That Thiago is not one of them has been a recurring theme ever since the Spaniard arrived from Bayern Munich in September 2020.
Thiago who turns 32 next month, has been absent from the last eight matches with a hip problem having started all 10 games for the Reds since the resumption of the season
It's Thiago's second absence this season having limped off shortly after half-time of the opening weekend draw at Fulham back in August with a hamstring complaint that kept him out for five matches.
Thiago has missed 15 of Liverpool's 40 games this season through injury. Last term, he sat out 22 of 63 due to fitness concerns. And during his debut Reds campaign, he was absent for 20 of 51 matches. That's an availability rate of around 63%.
When Thiago is fit, he tends to play. Only twice has he failed to come off the bench when named among the substitutes, and only once has he been rested from the squad completely.
Last season, though, the Reds won 21 of 25 games in which he started, compared to 25 of 37 when he did not. Thiago made a difference.
