Injured Ibrahima Konate receives France call-up

Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate has been called up by France - despite currently nursing an injury. This could be a boost for the Reds.

France boss Didier Deschamps named his squad on Thursday for the upcoming friendlies. One notable name on the list was Liverpool centre-back Ibrahima Konate.

Now, Konate is a regular for France, of course, but he's currently nursing an injury. The defender went off shortly after half-time against Sparta Prague last week with a problem - one that caused a bit of controversy.

Jurgen Klopp opted to leave Konate on beyond half-time despite the Reds' next game being against Manchester City. He only lasted another few minutes before picking up the knock that would rule him out of the meeting with the champions.

And so with Konate having been out for the last week, it's something of a surprise that France called him up. Maybe, though, it's actually a positive sign for Liverpool.

France call up Ibrahima Konate

It's difficult to believe that France would have made this decision without assurances that Konate was ready. Or at the very least, that he'll be ready by this weekend.

Liverpool take on Manchester United at Old Trafford and Klopp has hinted that he'll be available, saying there's 'a good chance' the Frenchman is fit. But that's yet to be confirmed, of course.

Perhaps this does effectively confirm it, though. France have no need to take a risk, after all, when it could rule Konate out for longer and affect his chances of making Euro 2024.

Instead, they believe this is a safe option. That tells us that Konate could very well be available against United in what would be a real boost for Liverpool.

They got past City with just Virgil van Dijk and Jarell Quansah as centre-back options - Joe Gomez was tied up playing left-back and then right-back. Konate being fit would make the game a lot easier to manage - and it sounds as though he will be.