Liverpool’s manager Andoni Iraola has confirmed that defender Joe Gomez will miss the start of the Premier League season after he picked up a muscle injury on the team’s preseason tour of the United States.

Gomez was subbed off after only eight minutes in Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Sunderland in Nashville on Saturday. The centre back didn’t play in team’s 1-0 win against Wrexham in New York on Wednesday.

Iraola has revealed that Gomez won’t play against Newcastle United on the opening weekend of the Premier League season on August 23 though the injury is not that serious.

“Joe has a muscle injury,” Iraola said at a news conference in Chicago on Thursday. “It was quite clear since he complained straightaway, so he will be out for some weeks.

“It’s difficult to say [in terms of a timescale] — normally one month. If it goes very well then a little bit less. If it goes bad then a bit more. It’s not massive. But I think it will be impossible to have him for the start of the season because we are not so far from that but it shouldn’t be a lot more.”

Gomez’s absence leaves Liverpool in some trouble following Ibrahima Konaté’s exit on a free transfer to Real Madrid at the end of last season. Furthermore, the team’s captain Virgil van Dijk hasn’t yet joined the team.

Iraola has called in teenagers Ifeanyi Ndukwe and Mor Talla Ndiaye to fill in the centre-back roles.

“You’ve seen in these games that we are pretty thin in the centre-back position,” Iraola said. “We still don’t have Virgil. The only centre-backs we have right now are Mor and Ifeanyi who are 18, just arrived at the club and are doing incredibly well.

“Yesterday Luke Chambers played there [against Wrexham]. He’s not a centre-back, but he played really well. Until we recover some bodies, I think Jeremy is ready to go.