Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch could return to action when the struggling Reds host in-form Aston Villa in the Premier League at Anfield on Saturday.

Barring a red card suspension on the opening weekend of the season, Gravenberch had played every minute in the Premier League until suffering an ankle injury an hour into Oct. 19’s 2–1 defeat at the hands of Manchester United.

Gravenberch sat out the subsequent league loss against Brentford and the Carabao Cup elimination to Crystal Palace this week, although the Dutchman likely wouldn’t have featured in the latter game anyway due to Arne Slot’s mass rotation.

Gravenberch isn’t the only Liverpool player who has been nursing an injury, with Alexander Isak, Alisson, Jeremie Frimpong and Curtis Jones all sidelined. But after facing Palace on Wednesday night, Slot rated Gravenberch as having the “best chance” of being available for Villa.

Ryan Gravenberch
Aside from suspension, Gravenberch had played every minute in the Premier League before getting injured. | PETER POWELL/AFP/Getty Images

“I think Ryan has a good chance,” the Liverpool boss said.

“The other ones are going to be... let’s wait and see tomorrow and Friday. I don’t know [about] all of them but I think Ryan has the best chance from all of them.”

The loss to Palace marked Liverpool’s sixth defeat in their last seven games across all competitions. Going into the weekend clash with Villa, the reigning champions will be desperately looking to avoid making it five consecutive Premier League defeats.

Slot has said that “losing that many” is already “too much” for a club like Liverpool, but the latest result pressure doesn’t change the pressure.

“I don’t think it’s possible that if you lose five out of six, that losing six out of seven there is even more pressure,” he said. “If you play for Liverpool or manage Liverpool you know the pressure is there. I don’t think it has changed much after this loss [against Palace].

“There are many reasons why we’ve lost six out of seven, none of them are good enough to accept losing so many. Liverpool losing that many is always too much. Our performance against Brentford, two days after we played Frankfurt away, I saw a team that struggled with ­playing three games in seven days. In two days, we play Villa and the last time I played a player I thought was ready for that programme was Alexander Isak, but it turns out he wasn’t and went out with an injury.”

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ryan Gravenberch: Arne Slot Provides Injury Update on Key Liverpool Midfielder.

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