Liverpool to be without eight players for Carabao Cup final - as Chelsea will be missing seven stars

Liverpool are sweating on three key players for the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday.

The Reds are already set to have depleted options at Wembley. Regular starters Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones are all sidelined through injury - and may be until after March's international break.

Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic and Ben Doak are all long-term absentees and will also have to watch on from the stands at the national stadium.

Certainly, Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szobozlai will be hoping they can play their part against Chelsea. All three will face late fitness tests ahead of the encounter. "It's important for us to use each minute, use each day to really look how the players are," said assistant manager Pep Lijnders. "This is for Mo, Dom and Darwin. Two training sessions to go, let's see how they are and then we can make a decision in the last minute."

But Chelsea too have issues of their own. Captain Reece James, Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Carney Chukwuemeka, Romeo Lavia and Lesley Ugochukwu are all set to be unavailable for Mauricio Pochetinno's outfit.

However, there is a chance that Thiago Silva could be back. The veteran 39-year-old defender has been nursing a groin issue.