Jeremie Frimpong reacts to 'strange' Liverpool injuries with honest assessment of debut season

• 

• Liverpool FC News
• Features
• Jeremie Frimpong

Liverpool full-back Jeremie Frimpong has had multiple injuries this season, in a campaign where he has found the step up in intensity in the Premier League to be a challenge

Liverpool full-back Jeremie Frimpong.(Image: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)

When Liverpool signed Jeremie Frimpong last summer, this was a player who had almost never picked up an injury before in his senior career.

According to Transfermarkt, he has already missed 25 matches for club and country through hamstring problems this season; before that, he had only been sidelined for a total of 11 in his entire career to date.

Reds boss Arne Slot has been open about the fact that some of his roster are unable to play three games per week and it seems likely that Frimpong falls into the category of needing to improve his physical capacity during the summer.

"It has been a strange year," Frimpong told The Telegraph ahead of the Merseyside derby. "I've been faced with a lot of injuries. Normally, I don’t get injured.

"The only time I had a lay-off before was for a surgery after a bad tackle. There was nothing I could do about that. But for it to happen to myself? Hamstrings? It’s never happened in my career.

"I’ve had three injuries and, on top of that, the team is not doing so well, like we should do. There have been a lot of challenges. If we could have won one of the FA Cup or the Champions League, it wouldn’t have been as bad.

Jeremie Frimpong applauds the fans before the Champions League game between Liverpool and Qarabag.(Image: Steven Halliwell/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“How have I dealt with it? I’ve got my family; my girlfriend. You have to understand we are human. We’ve got feelings as well. When bad things happen, we think about it.

"The moment you go home, you think: ‘Oh’. You have got to do something to stay away from going into your own mind.

"So you need your family, your loved ones and that is what has got me through the difficult times this season. I’m not going to lie, it’s been hard.

"But when I was down, I had people with me who made me be with them. They distract me, so I’m not just there sitting around looking at nothing."

With Joe Gomez sidelined because of the injury that forced him off against PSG earlier this week, Frimpong is likely to start at right-back as Liverpool faces Everton this weekend.

And with only one game per week for the remainder of the campaign, there will be more time on the training field for the Liverpool players, getting fitter and stronger ahead of next season is a must.

"I don’t want to be anywhere else other than Liverpool," Frimpong added. "Look, we’re going through a bad time now.

"I’ve had injuries, the team has had results that we didn’t want. But I wouldn’t change anything. Not a single thing. It’s all part of the journey."