Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker will be sidelined for at least a month with a hamstring injury, Brazil head coach Dorival Junior has hinted.
The Reds number one has not guarded the posts for Jurgen Klopp's side since their 3-1 loss to Arsenal on February 4, in which he was culpable for the Gunners' two second-half goals at the Emirates.
Alisson was unavailable for the subsequent win over Burnley due to illness, but he quickly overcame his bug and returned to team training prior to Liverpool's trip to Brentford on Saturday lunchtime.
However, during the Reds' final pre-match training session on Friday - which came after Klopp had delivered his injury update to the media - Alisson tweaked a hamstring muscle and was absent for the 4-1 win at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Caoimhin Kelleher will once again deputise in goal when Luton Town visit Anfield on Wednesday evening, and Alisson's participation in this weekend's EFL Cup final with Chelsea has been shrouded in uncertainty for the past few days.
The 31-year-old can seemingly forget about representing his team at Wembley on February 25, though, as Brazil manager Junior has now delivered a pessimistic update on his fitness.
The Selecao will face England and Spain in a pair of international friendlies on March 23 and March 26 respectively, and speaking to TNT Sports, Junior revealed that Alisson would be one of a few players with no chance of making the cut for those contests.
"In terms of possible call-ups, all the names mentioned are important players and have some prominence in their teams. They would indeed be on a pre-list," Junior said.
"In particular, some players who had slightly more serious injuries, such as Alisson, Matheus Cunha, Joao Pedro and even Neymar, are totally removed from any possibility at this moment.
"Not that we were already defined by the name of one or the other. In this extensive list, we have, some of these would no longer allow us to be called up at this moment."
Owing to Junior's admission, Alisson also stands to miss a crunch Premier League tie with Manchester City on March 10, which comes seven days before a Merseyside derby with Everton at Goodison Park.
Either side of the meeting with Man City, the last 16 of the Europa League will take place, and Kelleher will seemingly be required to deputise in goal for those showdowns as well.
Alisson is one of 11 injury victims taking up beds in the overflowing Reds medical bay, as Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota are also out of contention with the issues they sustained in the first half at Brentford.
Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah will also need once-overs after also coming out of the clash with Bees worse for wear, although the latter's problem is believed to be fatigue-related rather than a recurrence of his muscular problem.
Stefan Bajcetic, Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Dominik Szoboszlai, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ben Doak will all miss the visit of Luton too, where Liverpool can move four points clear at the top of the Premier League table. body check tags ::
