Liverpool’s Andy Robertson faces three months out with shoulder injury

Liverpool are likely to lose Andy Robertson for three months after it was confirmed the defender needs surgery on the shoulder injury sustained on international duty.

Robertson damaged the shoulder in a collision with Spain’s goalkeeper Unai Simón during Scotland’s 2-0 defeat in Sevilla last Thursday. He returned to Liverpool this week to be assessed by a specialist, who confirmed the club’s fears that an operation was required. The 29-year-old left-back, a virtual ever-present for Jürgen Klopp’s team in recent years who has played every minute of his club’s eight league games so far this season, is not expected to return to competitive action until next year.

• Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.

• If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.

• In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.

• Turn on sport notifications.

Klopp, the Liverpool manager, said: “I think the decision is we go towards surgery. There is a little chance we could try without but talking to pretty much all experts it looks like surgery will be the best thing, especially in the long term definitely, and that means he is out for a while.

“I don’t know exactly how long but it is shoulder surgery so not exactly an easy one. In my experience you can train pretty quickly again but not football-specific because you have to be careful of challenges and all these kind of things. He will be out for a while.”