Wayne Rooney does not think the exertions of Liverpool’s players against Paris Saint-Germain will count against them in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
Liverpool was taken to extra-time and penalties by the French champion, ultimately exiting the Champions League after losing the shoot-out by four goals to two, with Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones both missing from the spot for the Reds.
The amount of time that Liverpool was on the pitch for, coupled with the intensity of the game, would no doubt have left some players feeling a little sore on Wednesday, but Rooney thinks they should have fully recovered in time for the final against Newcastle United at Wembley.
“It is great when you win but when you lose a penalty shootout it hurts,” Rooney told Amazon Prime after Liverpool’s loss. “It was a classy game. Both teams gave everything and it is cruel when you lose on penalties. I think PSG was probably the better team over two legs so probably deserved to go through.
“Liverpool have a cup final on Sunday and there is no better opportunity to bounce back and win silverware. Tuesday-Sunday is long enough to recover. They will have a couple of days of training to prepare and I think they will be fine.”
Ibrahima Konate appeared to run out of gas during the closing stages of the game but Arne Slot suggested that the Frenchman’s issue was tiredness, rather than an injury.
However, that is seemingly not the case for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who jarred his ankle during the second half and had to be replaced by Jarell Quansah.
“He had to come off – that’s never a good sign,” Slot said of Alexander-Arnold. “From what I heard from people that saw the images of how he got injured, it didn’t look very good. I would be surprised if he is [available] for Sunday.”
Joe Gomez, Conor Bradley and Tyler Morton all remain sidelined, with Gomez having undergone hamstring surgery earlier this year and Morton out with a shoulder problem.
Bradley will not return until after the international break either, and he was left out of the Northern Ireland squad for the upcoming friendlies against Switzerland and Sweden.
