Gary Breen believes that the knee injury suffered by Joe Gomez on England duty will force Liverpool into the transfer market.

The Reds have been hit by a series of defensive injuries, with Virgil van Dijk likely to be out for the season after a cruciate ligament injury, as well as injuries at various points to Alisson, Fabinho, Joel Matip and now Gomez.

After the departure of Dejan Lovren in the summer, Breen told OTB AM that Liverpool will have to move in January.

"It is a huge problem, it really is," Breen said of Gomez's absence.

"I don't know the extent of it but I heard the breaking news and if it is confirmed as a knee injury then that is a real concern because you know very quickly if it is a bad one.

"Your hope is it that it is just six weeks rather than six months, or something really bad like van Dijk has had.

"Jurgen Klopp will be absolutely furious that this has happened because [Gomez is someone that you would have earmarked as picking up the slack of Virgil van Dijk.

"You have to counter that with the fact that Matip is now back fit but he has had a lot of niggly injury problems. This is the concern. This will force Liverpool to have to do some business in January."

Joe Gomez injury

While Liverpool have some defensive talent coming through the ranks, Breen believes that reliance on this could prove to be a double-edged sword.

"I know that they have got the young lads coming through, and that's great. I know that people will say they're inexperienced but you can counter that by saying that those young centre-halves are playing against top-quality players in training.

"But it is still a different challenge playing in the Premier League as opposed to playing those Liverpool players in training.

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