After sitting out the win over Southampton at the weekend with a hip problem, Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho is facing a late fitness test ahead of the second leg of the Reds Europa League tie with Turkish side Besiktas on Thursday.
The French defender missed out on quite a bit of the first half of the season with injuries and poor judgement seeing him sidelined for long stretches of time. His return to the side in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal at the end of December signalled a significant turn around in Liverpool’s fortunes and they remain unbeaten in the league since then with the 2-0 win over the Saints their tenth match on the hop without a loss.
Since returning to the starting eleven, the 25-year old has nailed down a spot in the line-up, forming a successful back three alongside Martin Skrtel and makeshift defender Emre Can — though it sounds like he may not be fit enough to run out in Istanbul on tomorrow. “Mamadou Sakho has an injury and will need a scan” said Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers ahead of the win at St. Mary’s last Sunday, though the Northern Irishman never did expand on the seriousness of the problem.
Should the Frenchman miss out, Dejan Lovren could once again be called upon to fill in for him. His first half display against his former club at the weekend was definitely a cause for concern — coupled with Can looking shaky having been pushed out to the left to accomodate the Croatian defenders return — though he seemed to reacclimatize to the pace of the game by the time the second half kicked off. If he does feature, let’s hope it doesn’t take him quite a long to get up to speed.
