'If I hadn't been injured' - Ibrahima Konate admits Liverpool regret and reacts to being benched

Ibrahima Konate has insisted he wasn’t dropped by Jurgen Klopp during a disappointing end to Liverpool’s 2023/24 season.

The Frenchman struggled for form after suffering an injury in the Reds’ 5-1 win away at Sparta Prague in early-March. While making a comeback after the international break, he would start just three of Liverpool’s final 11 games of the Premier League season, and was an unused substitute for their final four matches after a poor display in a Merseyside defeat to Everton.

Jarell Quansah would finish his breakthrough season as first-choice as a result. But Konate has taken issue with claims that he was dropped by Klopp.

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"’Demotion’ is not the right word,” he told Le Monde. “There was nothing at stake in Liverpool's last few games. If that had been the case, I would have been in a different mood and I would have discussed it with the coach.

“But I've worked twice as hard on my own, alongside my club training, to be ready for this Euro. Mentally, there's nothing to say. Physically, I'm still lacking a bit of game time in my legs, but I'm not worried.”

Konate has struggled with injury at times since joining Liverpool in a £36m deal from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2021. He missed seven matches because of injury last season, having been ruled out of 21 games the year before.

Such troubles prompted Klopp to hit out at France manager Didier Deschamps for his use of the defender in the past, with the 25-year-old rarely making back-to-back starts for Liverpool as a result.

And the Frenchman has revealed how he copes with his recurring injury setbacks, admitting he does at times wonder if they have at times held him back.

“By telling myself that a career is short and that now is not the time to waver,” he said. “Sometimes, when I'm lying in bed, I say to myself that if I hadn't been injured, I'd have been really strong, maybe the best central defender today!

“But that's all part of being a footballer. It doesn't stop me from moving forward and, on the contrary, it gives me a mentality of steel. On the pitch and in my private life.”

Meanwhile, Konate also admitted that he is not yet over losing the 2022 Champions League final and 2022 World Cup final to Real Madrid and Argentina respectively. But hoping to win Euro 2024 this summer with France, he’s confident that he will be able to win such titles in the future for club and country.

“Frankly, there's nothing to help me digest it,” he conceded. “It's still stuck in my throat.

“The only thing that reassures me is that I still have time ahead of me to win these titles. In the end, I hope I'll have some great stories to tell.”

Konate was left out of France’s Euro 2024 opener against Austria as Arsenal’s William Saliba started at his expense. As a result, it remains to be seen if the 25-year-old will regain his place against the Netherlands on Friday night.

If he does, he will come up against Liverpool centre-back partner Virgil van Dijk, along with fellow team-mates Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch. And Konate revealed the impact that his club captain has had on him in his career to date.

“For me, he's the best. I try to get the better of him,” he said. “What I've learned from him: his calm, his serenity. And then there's his aura.

“Some strikers have already lost psychologically, even before their duel with him. That's my aim, to intimidate the opponent so that, in future matches, he'll go and fight the duel with another player!”