Joe Gomez admits watching Liverpool thrive during injury absence 'hurt'

Joe Gomez admits it has not been easy watching from the sidelines as Liverpool have thrived this season.

The England defender fractured his leg against Burnley in December and was unable to make his return until mid-April.

The injury limited Gomez to just six appearances during the Premier League run-in, where Liverpool were pipped to the title by Manchester City, and their route to the Champions League final next month.

Gomez is in contention to start against Tottenham in Madrid, but reflecting on his enforced absence from the team, he told the Liverpool website: "It's probably underestimated a bit how much it can affect us as footballers.

"Like it might just seem that you're injured and now you just watch the boys, but it hurts - especially a year like this that was pretty historic.

"To watch a large majority of those games, having had a taste of it at the beginning, was difficult to take. Obviously it was nice to overcome it and get a bit of involvement at the end.

"We've just got to move on now and we've got a big game. There's a lot of ups and downs, but it's all a learning curve."

Gomez was also forced to miss last season's Champions League final, which Liverpool lost 3-1 to Real Madrid, following ankle surgery.

However, the 21-year-old believes they are in better shape to succeed this time around, saying: "I definitely think we go into this final in a different place.

"It's still a Champions League final and they're always separate occasions and you have to approach it with the same mentality. But I think this year speaks for itself and the growth in the team has been massive.

"(The manager) shows and emphasises the fact that we're a different team and we can't go into that thinking we're the same team.

"In that sense, we can take the confidence from that, but still have the desire to win one because we know what it means for this club and we want to get the sixth star."

Follow the Champions League final on Sky Sports

You can follow all of the action of Tottenham vs Liverpool from the Wanda Metropolitano on the Sky Sports app and skysports.com with our dedicated Champions League final live blog, which will feature the best build-up, commentary and reaction from Madrid.

The Champions League final will take place on June 1, 2019; Kick-off is at 8pm.

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