Southampton manager Claude Puel has confirmed Virgil van Dijk will miss the League Cup final and will be sidelined for up to three months with an ankle injury.
Van Dijk, 25, hasn’t featured for Southampton since limping off in their 3-0 win over Leicester over a week ago before initial claims suggested the Dutch defender would miss up to three months of the season recovering from the ankle knock he suffered.
Southampton failed to confirm or deny those initial claims but Puel has since ruled their star defender won’t return until April at the earliest.
“He will not be available for many weeks, two or three months,” The Daily Mail quote Puel as saying.
“It’s an important problem and difficult for us. He is important for the group and the fans with his quality and leadership.
“It’s a blow but we will find a solution. For the semi-final leg against Liverpool we got a fantastic result without him and we will continue with other possibilities.
“Ryan Bertrand can play in this position, and we will see with young players like Jack Stephens. We have possibilities.”
It comes as awful news for Southampton, who sold captain Jose Fonte to West Ham for £8m last month without bringing in any defensive reinforcements in the January transfer window.
In the last two Premier League campaigns only Alexis Sanchez and Eden Hazard (12) have picked up more WhoScored man of the match awards than Van Dijk (10).
For more stats on Virgil Van Dijk, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
