Lallana must buck recent trend and follow Henchoz (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

When you've just sold the best player in the league, the last thing you need is for your most expensive and most sought-after summer recruit to be struck down with knee ligament damage before even kicking a ball in anger.

Adam Lallana's unfortunate injury is a blow to Liverpool and understandably puts an early dampener on their plans for the new season, but if there is one small crumb of comfort, it's that it could easily have been a whole lot worse. A six-week layoff is far from ideal for player or club, but had the injury to his lateral collateral ligament required an operation, then Lallana would have missed four months. That's a long time -- even Luis Suarez would have been back playing before Lallana.

If the initial diagnosis proves accurate, however, the 26-year-old should be back in contention by the time the Champions League group stage rolls around, and perhaps even earlier if he's lucky.

The concern for Liverpool is not just the six weeks Lallana will be sidelined, but that he is missing preseason and will therefore be "playing catch-up" when he eventually does return. Advancements in sports science mean that missing preseason is not quite the catastrophe it used to be for a player, but it undoubtedly makes things that bit more difficult for someone looking to make his mark at a new club.

When a player moves to a new team, he wants to get out there playing right away to integrate himself with his new teammates and to win the fans over as quickly as possible. Lallana has been robbed of the opportunity to do that, and will no doubt be a hugely frustrated young man right now. Being injured is bad enough, but being injured having just joined a new club is far, far worse.

Adam Lallana's injury will force everyone to wait to see just how he will fit into the Liverpool side.

It's obviously not the start anyone wanted, and recent history provides cause for some slight alarm, particularly for superstitious types who see this as a "bad omen" or "a sign of things to come." It's irrational, silly even, but I'll admit that was the first thought that crossed my mind when I heard the news of the injury, and I'm fairly sure I'm not alone in that.

Getting off to a good start is vitally important for new signings, and Liverpool have not had much luck of late with players who didn't hit the ground running, particularly those who were hampered by injury early into their Anfield careers.

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