Ibrahima Konate confirms heartbreaking death of father after pulling out of Liverpool game
Ibrahima Konate has shared the sad news that his father, Hamady, has passed away. The defender missed Liverpool’s Champions League win over Marseille on Wednesday night, with the club confirming that he was elsewhere in France dealing with a family matter.
And Konate has now confirmed that his father has sadly passed away. He shared details of Hamady's funeral on his Instagram account, along with the words “From Him we come, and to Him we return."
The devastating post confirmed that his father's funeral will take place on Friday.
Speaking before Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Roberto De Zerbi’s side, Reds boss Arne Slot admitted that Konate was going through a "very sad" time. He said: "No, first of all, for the family matter, why he is not here, it is very sad for him. Second of all, we miss him because I mainly played him [and Virgil van Dijk]."
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In Konate's absence, Joe Gomez started in defence alongside Van Dijk. Slot added: "Joe is a good replacement but not played much in the one-and-a-half year that I have been here, for obvious reasons.
"But it’s a great game for him, he’s not played a lot. He has showed that he can build a great partnership with Virgil, winning the Premier League under Jurgen five years ago now.
"He’s shown he can be a really good player for us." Van Dijk also sent a message to Konate after the match, after helping Liverpool keep a clean sheet alongside Gomez.
"My thoughts are with him (Konate). I'm very happy to play with Joe. We are good friends, that helps as well. He played outstanding and was important in the first goal," he said.
Konate had only missed two Carabao Cup games for Liverpool all season before Wednesday night's victory. His contract is due to expire at the end of the season, with Real Madrid interested.
The win in France lifted Liverpool into fourth in the Champions League table, two points ahead of ninth-placed Barcelona, with Qarabag to come at home next week as they seek to avoid the play-off round and go directly into the last 16.
And Slot post-match said: “It’s very important because we have had to play with the same players because of injuries for most of the season.
“That could be the reason why we have run out of energy in some of the games when we’ve conceded. I don’t think Virgil (van Dijk) has had more than three days off, the same for Ryan (Gravenberch) and others, but they constantly show up no matter how many setbacks we’ve had this season.
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“It’s always very difficult to play Marseille because of their passionate fans and the quality of their players, but what makes it even harder is the quality of their manager.
“We were prepared for that. We took the ball off them three or four times in the first half but couldn’t find the player who was completely free, apart from one time and he (Hugo Ekitike) was fractionally offside.
“On the ball we were controlled, but what made the difference this time was that after we had a big chance and hit the post, they had a big chance and put it over: usually this season that goes in.
“But we were able to make it 2-0, 3-0 and so that makes the perception of the game completely different.
“Against Burnley (Saturday’s 1-1 draw) we created three or four times more than we did tonight, but tonight we scored three.”