Alexander Isak is likely to miss Sweden’s World Cup play-offs as Arne Slot has admitted he will have to “mess up the party” for them in a bid to ensure his £125m striker is not injured again.
The summer signing is on the comeback trail after suffering a broken leg in December’s win over Tottenham.
And now the earliest he could make his Liverpool comeback is in their FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester City on 4 April.
Slot had hoped Isak would be back in contention before the international break but he is set to sit out the games against Tottenham, Galatasaray and Brighton over the next eight matches.
Then Sweden face Ukraine in a play-off with a potential final against either Poland or Albania for a place in the United States, but Slot does not believe he will play for Graham Potter’s team then.
“If you ask me now I would say I don’t expect that,” said Slot. “But we are still one-and-a-half weeks off, there is always cooperation between club and country but I don’t expect him to play for us before that.
“Again, I have to mess up the party again. Let’s say [he comes back] at the beginning of April, he has been out for three-and-a-half months and not trained with the team for three-and-a-half months. The last time he did that, it took him a while to get up to speed.”
Isak has only scored three goals for Liverpool and Slot warned that he is unlikely to be back at his best straight away.
He added: “I am really, really looking forward to having him back but don’t get the expectations again so high that the minute he is on the pitch, he is at the level of what we spent that money on.”
