BY KELVIN DANLADI ISA 

The Liverpool boss is facing the prospect of missing his star defender for the entirety of the season, though a timeframe has not been been put on his recovery yet. 

Liverpool are refusing to put pressure on Virgil Van Dijk by naming a timespan in which they hope to have the dutchman back available again, but the fact remains that he will be out for a significant period of time. 

As was discussed on both the "poetry in motion podcast " and the "Liverpool.com podcast " this week, Liverpool will miss van dijk in a variety of ways, his defensive abilities are clear, but he is also, for example, an excellent passer of the ball, and he is a huge threat offensively from set pieces. 

But Jurgen Klopp, while he will be as disappointed as anyone else to have his player missing through injury, spoke a long time ago about the risks surrounding high profile like van dijk. 

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With Van Dijk out, Liverpool are not only missing a crucial component of their team, but they are also without an asset that they paid a transfer fee of £75 million for and who is worth considerably more than that now. 

When Paul Pogba signed for Manchester united for a then record fee of £89 million in 2016, Klopp was inevitably asked about spending such a fee on a player. 

At the time, he said : "If you bring one player in for £100 million and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney. The day that this is football, i'm not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together. 

Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players. I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money."

Since then, Liverpool have spent £75 million on Van Dijk and another £62 million on Alisson Becker. Two players who have been missing with injuries already this season, though the Brazilians absence is much more short term. And now the red's will be missing one of their best player Virgil Van Dijk.