Virgil van Dijk has warned his Liverpool teammates that injuries and suspensions could be crucial when it comes to deciding the fate of the Premier League title.

The Reds sit top of the table, two points ahead of Chelsea, who have played a game less, but must now prepare to be without left-back Andy Robertson, who sent off early in 2-2 draw with Fulham.

He's leaving Liverpool short at the back, with Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley injured and Kostas Tsimikas still recovering from his own fitness problem, Van Dijk admitted that periods like this could go a long way in deciding which team wins the Premier League when all is well. said and done.

"Let's see what happens on Wednesday," Van Dijk said ahead of the Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Southampton in midweek. "I don't know, maybe the manager needs to be creative.

"We have to accept the injuries that are there and deal with them, unfortunately, of course, but we hope that things will change and that the players will return as soon as possible in the best possible way.

"It has already been mentioned many times, injuries are piling up, you see that with the different teams and the amount of games we play. Then injuries inevitably happen and that could change the quality of the game. But what (Manchester City) was going through with injuries and inconsistent games, going up and down, we were too and it's not easy to get out of, it's not easy to be in.

"I'm not going to talk about them because I don't focus on them, but I know how difficult it is to go through and I hope we don't go through, but we also have injuries.

"Whether it's because of the workload and all the games, you don't know, but obviously it plays a big part because you need a lot of body, not only playing the game, but traveling, flying up and down the world, but that's football for the 2024/25 season , so you have to deal with it."

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