SINGAPORE - Sunday, July 30, 2023: Liverpool substitutes Jarell Quansah (L) and Calum Scanlon before a pre-season friendly match between Liverpool FC and Leicester City FC at the Singapore National Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

“Doesn’t look good” – Young Liverpool defender suffers new injury blow

Liverpool youngster Calum Scanlon is enduring a miserable run of injuries on loan at Millwall, picking up a new issue days after scoring his first senior goal.

Scanlon netted the opening goal in Millwall’s 2-2 draw with Cardiff on Tuesday night, rifling home just 60 seconds into his second start back from injury.

Prior to that the left-back, 19, had spent four months on the sidelines due to a stress fracture in his back, returning to Liverpool’s AXA Training Centre for treatment.

With a new manager in place at Millwall, it was clear as soon as he made his comeback that he would feature prominently under Alex Neil – and Saturday brought his third consecutive start.

Unfortunately, it saw Scanlon suffer another frustrating injury, needing to be helped off the pitch 17 minutes into a 1-0 win at Luton due to a hamstring problem.

Scanlon will await undergo a scan to determine the severity of his injury, but speaking to reporters including Southwark News‘ Will Scott after the game, Neil admitted it “doesn’t look good.”

“They don’t look good,” he said, having also saw goalkeeper Lukas Jensen stretchered off late on.

“Calum’s had to come off. I think it’s a hamstring injury. We need to get it scanned and get the extent of it.”

BRADFORD, ENGLAND - Tuesday, December 5, 2023: Liverpool's Calum Scanlon during the pre-match warm-up before the English Football League Trophy Round of 32 match between Bradford City AFC and Liverpool FC Under-21's at Valley Parade. (Photo by Ed Sykes/Propaganda)

The likelihood is that Scanlon will again head back to Liverpool for treatment, though Millwall will be hoping he has avoided serious damage.

“We’ve got pretty much four front players out. We’ve got two right-backs out. We’ve just lost another sort of left-back who’s now playing as a left winger for us and we’ve just lost our goalkeeper,” Neil continued.

“So I don’t want to hear any team in this league complaining about injuries because if you come and look at ours, it’ll be as extensive as anybody.”

SINGAPORE - Friday, July 28, 2023: Liverpool's Calum Scanlon arrives at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Singapore ahead of the Singapore Festival of Football pre-season tournament. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Though considered an important player at Millwall, Scanlon has been limited to just four appearances so far this season for a total of 169 minutes on the pitch.

There are high hopes for the attacking left-sider both at Liverpool and within the England setup, and this injury marred campaign will be optimistically viewed as a formative experience for the teenager.

Scanlon was involved in the first pre-season training sessions under Arne Slot last summer – and with an upheaval in the left-back ranks expected later this year, he could be given a chance upon his return to Merseyside.