Liverpool’s centre half, Martin Skrtel, had been forced to withdraw from Slovakia's team due to injury. The centre-back has been struggling with knee and ankle problems since his club's 2-0 defeat at Stoke on Saturday, when he had to take pain-killers to complete the match. Skrtel had therefore decided not to play in the international friendly and informed Slovakia coach Vladimir Weiss that he was better off staying in England. The 25-year-old will now aim to regain full fitness for Liverpool's crucial match against West Ham at Anfield on Saturday.
Martin Skrtel said: "I've had problems with my knee and ankle (since the Stoke game). Before half-time, one of the opposing players kicked me in the knee from behind and I had to finish the game under pain-killers. Besides that, I also twisted my ankle, which has been haunting me since a friendly game against Costa Rica in June."
Liverpool will welcome London side, West Ham United, at Anfield for the 14th game of their Barclays Premier League campaign. Liverpool top the bottom half of the Premier League table and will be looking to move into the top half of the table with a win.
Manchester City:
The Citizens assistant manager David Platt has launched a spirited defence of his boss, Roberto Mancini. The Manchester City manager has come under fire for being taking too defensive an approach after successive goalless draws. The Manchester City faithful reacted by chanting "What is going on" when their manager opted to replace a striker with defensive midfielders towards the end of City’s latest stalemate against Birmingham. It seemed a pointless move, given an attacker was also present on the bench at that moment.
However, Platt was quick to reject any notion of Mancini being a defensive coach.
Platt said that it was wrong for people to judge the coach by saying he was defensive. He added, "He isn't (defensive), in any way, shape or form. It is too easy to look at it and say you have taken a striker off and put a midfield player on. It isn't a computer game. We more or less camped out in the Birmingham half for the majority of the second half. "
Despite Manchester City’s two consecutive draws, the Citizens are well placed in fourth spot in Premier League table, just three points behind their fierce-rivals Manchester United.
Manchester United:
Preston North End has agreed a deal with Manchester United for the loan signing of defender Ritchie de Laet. Ritchie de Laet joins two fellow United players at the Lancashire club. Manager Darren Ferguson moved swiftly to secure his services, after Sean St Ledger and Callum Davidson both picked up knocks against Hull City last Friday. The length of the deal is yet to be agreed between the clubs but the versatile defender will be included in the squad for Saturday's trip to Queens Park Rangers.
Darren said: "We've agreed a deal with United for Ritchie de Laet - it's been sanctioned by them. We've just got to finalise the length of the loan then everything will be done. He's joining us for training and will be available for the QPR game. Ritchie is a versatile defender; he spent a month on loan with Sheffield United recently so he knows the Championship."
Manchester United signed De Laet from Stoke City in January 2009, and has made three Premier League starts for the Red Devils.
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