Prior to Liverpool’s match against Atalanta BC, Jurgen Klopp provides a quadruple injury update.
Jurgen Klopp has stated that he has not yet decided if Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota, or Alisson Becker of Liverpool will play in the first leg of their quarterfinal Europa League match against Atalanta BC on Thursday.
The three players and Stefan Bajcetic were shown in team training at the AXA Training Centre on Tuesday, giving the Reds a significant boost after missing time due to injuries.
Due to a hamstring injury, Alisson has been out of action since February 4 and has missed Liverpool’s previous 13 games across all competitions, giving Caoimhin Kelleher a longer stint in goal.
Jota and Alexander-Arnold have both been recovering from knee injuries; the latter was sidelined against Brentford only a week after the former’s injury against Burnley on February 10.
Bajcetic, a young midfielder, has only made two first-team appearances this season due to groin and calf problems, although he has lately improved significantly his recuperation.
Klopp is not rushing to get the injured trio back.
During a news conference on Wednesday, prior to Liverpool’s Europa League match against Atalanta at Anfield, Klopp stated that the four players who are returning still require time to improve their stamina and coordination.
Klopp told reporters, “We will have to see [if they can feature].” Naturally, we took our time with the lads. Though we didn’t, we can. That implies that they—especially Trent and Diogo—did a great deal of training on their own. collaborated as a team for two or three weeks. might perform quite well in training.
“To be honest, it looked really amazing yesterday. We must observe. Now that they are back in training, we must consider how to employ and incorporate them.
“It is obvious that we need them, but we also want to offer them a rhythm and the finest possible condition. The boys are never easy to reintegrate.
“But it ought to be simpler given their quality. We’ll utilize them throughout the coming days and weeks, but I haven’t decided what that means for tomorrow yet.”
Alisson has not yet participated in full training, according to Klopp, and Bajcetic will play for the Under-21s before being evaluated for a first-team comeback.
“Stefan is a little bit different because he was out for much longer but is now training with us for longer as well,” Klopp added. “I think with the long spell he had without playing football, it makes sense, we might give him a game with the Under-21s and let’s see how he deals with that.
“That’s not the plan with the other three guys. Alisson is on the way back as well. I think Ali so far, it’s seven or eight weeks. He’s not back in full training yet. Jota was 10 weeks or something? It was really long, and Trent is the longest since I’ve known him. They all need to get back step-by-step.
“Jota, Ali, Trent, usually think the first day they can step on the training ground, we have to bring them again and play them again. We probably had these situations in the last few years and it’s never really healthy. It doesn’t help a lot, they need time to get up to speed again. They are most happy that we are still in the situation we are in.
“If they are now ready to go, minutes and more, it’s perfect timing because we play Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday. We will need the boys. It’s not about who can play all the games.
“The young boys or whoever stepped in and played the role, they shouldn’t and couldn’t play all the games. We need all the players and we always need quality on the pitch because we have to pretty much win all the games.
“That’s good news, I cannot say anything negative. They need time and hopefully we can give them that time.”
Liverpool head into Thursday’s contest after drawing 2-2 with Manchester United in the Premier League last Sunday, while they thrashed Sparta Prague 11-2 on aggregate in the last 16 of the Europa League last month.
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