Mohamed Ibrahima Konaté has made his first senior France squad call-up while playing for Liverpool. A vacancy in the Parisian’s squad was created by a missing Raphael Varane, and Didier Deschamps has looked to the Frenchman to fill it.
Despite largely clean injury records from September 2017 to September 2021, he was selected to every squad. The last time he played for his country was in the Copa América final against Argentina nearly one year ago.
It had been suggested that the previously-overlooked 22-year-old could consider switching allegiance to Mali, but he may now force his way into Deschamps’ plans for the Qatar World Cup at the end of the year. And so, both Konaté and Virgil van Dijk, the centre-back duo that started the Champions League final, could well be jetting off to the Middle East midway through the 2022/23 campaign.
However, there is one other important Liverpool player who now looks increasingly likely to miss out. Roberto Firmino has racked up 55 caps for Brazil and appeared at four major tournaments — three editions of the Copa América and the 2018 World Cup.
From September 2017 until September 2021, with his injury record largely clean, he made every single squad. But it’s now been nearly a year since he last featured for his country in the Copa América final against Argentina.
Firmino is no longer bulletproof. He was unavailable for selection in September after sustaining a muscle injury, and having played just 68 minutes in the intervening five matches, failed to win back his place in October. A further hamstring problem would rule him out of the November fixtures, and he’s since been overlooked for the January, March and June rosters.
It seems that Tite has come to view Firmino as dispensable. The 30-year-old’s prospects of joining team-mates Alisson and Fabinho at the World Cup are looking increasingly bleak.
Klopp is more appreciative of Firmino than perhaps anybody else, and so he’ll no doubt view this as harsh. But it could also be a blessing, with another of his attacking options set to get a break.
Senegal, of course, beat Mohamed Salah’s Egypt in the qualifying playoff, and so the right winger will enjoy a rest, as will Luis Díaz after Colombia finished down in sixth in the South American competition.
As the tournament comes to an end and action resumes on Boxing Day, the Liverpool front line is likely to pick itself: Salah on the right, Firmino in the middle, Diaz on the left. Firmino, indeed, has already benefitted from his team-mates’ international exertions in the past. Last season, he started the two matches against Watford (the first in November, the second in April) immediately after international breaks, with Jota deemed to be tired.
A unique challenge awaits Liverpool and their competitors at the winter World Cup. Adding injuries and additional fatigue to the mix, it is sure to change the landscape of next season’s title race. And so, a month-long mid-season recess for star players should be a significant advantage, both straight after the tournament and in the final weeks of the season, when players near the limits of their energy reserves.
