Liverpool Goalkeeper Alisson Doubtful for Bournemouth Clash

Liverpool's Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker © GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP
Liverpool's Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker © GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP
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Liverpool Goalkeeper Alisson Doubtful for Bournemouth Clash

Liverpool's Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker © GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP
Liverpool's Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker © GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has revealed the club's Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker is a doubt for Saturday's Premier League clash with Bournemouth.

Alisson aggravated a hamstring injury that had been troubling him for several weeks during Tuesday's Champions League win at AC Milan.

The Brazil international has played every match for Liverpool this season, keeping three clean sheets in five games in all competitions, and his absence would be a blow to title-chasing Liverpool, AFP reported.

Ireland keeper Caoimhin Kelleher would likely deputise for Alisson if the 31-year-old cannot face Bournemouth at Anfield this weekend.

"Alisson is still a doubt if he can train today and if he can't, probably won't play. He has a slight issue with one of his muscles," Slot told reporters on Friday.

"We wonder if this game tomorrow is coming too early or not. He didn't take it from the Milan game, it happened a bit before, but after the Milan game he felt it more.

"Now we have to wait and see if he is ready to be in goal tomorrow or wait a few extra days."

With Liverpool in the middle of a gruelling run of seven games in 22 days, Alisson spoke ahead of the Milan game about his concern over the increased workload players face with the expansion of the Champions League.

"What we want is to give our best for the football. If you are tired you cannot compete at a high level," Alisson said in Milan.

"I want to give my best in all the games I play but we need a solution. It does not look like we are close to a good solution for football's sake and players' sake."

Slot acknowledged it is important to consider the health of players, given the extra burden placed on them by the schedule.

"We are thinking about what's to come, we are aware of the fact it's a long season," he said.

"The main difference with the Premier League to Europe is we have to play at Christmas and New Year.

"We need a lot of players and we take that into account when making a line-up."



Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

 Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

 Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”