Liverpool fans were delighted to see Dominik Szoboszlai start Saturday’s match against Brentford, but their happiness soon turned to dismay after the Hungarian went down injured with half an hour on the clock.

Szoboszlai was replaced by Trey Nyoni, who had been expected to make his first Premier League start, and after seeing him go off, supporters were justified in asking exactly why Szoboszlai had started at all if he was not ready.

Szoboszlai does not have a new injury

The sight of Szoboszlai going off under no pressure at all was an incredibly frustrating one. If the midfielder was not ready, then why on earth was he in the starting XI for such an important game?

Iraola appears to see things differently, though, telling Sky Sports after the match that Liverpool simply weren’t sure how long Szoboszlai would manage for, with 30 minutes seemingly not seen as being a problem.

“He has tried, he has trained the last days, but we didn’t know the minutes he’d have,” said the Spaniard. “It’s not another injury, he’s still not healed.”

Iraola updates on Jeremie Frimpong

Szoboszlai was not the only Liverpool player to be taken off with an injury on Saturday, with Jeremie Frimpong also substituted off.

The Dutchman was on the pitch for only five minutes after coming on at half-time, giving Iraola no choice but to move Victor Munoz to right-back.

And though he was more positive on Szoboszlai’s problem, the Liverpool head coach did concede after the game that Frimpong looks to have picked up a muscle problem.

“He finished cramping the other day in the Champions League so we knew he wouldn’t start the game,” he said.

“We were playing against 10 and I thought he was going to give us more going forwards, but he felt straight away something in the muscle.”