Liverpool Team News: Klopp Reveals Injury Boost Ahead Of Chelsea + Sturridge Latest

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been handed an injury boost with the news that Christian Benteke is fit and available for tomorrow’s trip to the capital to face Chelsea.

The German coach heads to Stamford Bridge looking to secure his first Premier League win since taking over at Anfield and he’s given the latest team news to Liverpoolfc.com ahead of the game.

The big news is that Benteke is back training again after missing the Capital One Cup victory over Bournemouth with a minor knee injury and the Belgian international is set to return to the starting line-up on Saturday.

Benteke’s availability is a major boost for Liverpool as Klopp also confirmed that Daniel Sturridge will once again miss out as he continues to recover from a niggling knee injury.

Kolo Toure will also miss the trip to London after the centre-back suffered a hamstring injury in midweek but Klopp is confident it isn’t going to be a long-term problem.

He told the clubs website:

“It’s better than yesterday.

“Christian trained quite normally together with one of our fitness coaches and it was good, he was okay. He’s prepared for tomorrow, I would say, so that’s the only thing that changed.

“Kolo has not the most serious injury but it’s enough that he cannot play tomorrow. No Daniel [Sturridge].”

Toure becomes the latest player to be sidelined for Liverpool this season with the likes of Danny Ings, Joe Gomez, Daniel Sturridge, Jon Flanagan and Jordan Henderson all nursing long-term injuries but Klopp has dismissed the suggestion that the clubs medical department is accountable for their lengthy injury list.

He continued:

“I think [the medical department] is one of the departments that works perfect,”

“I’m not sure about [everybody] because I’ve not met [everybody] but everything is fine. Everything is the same with Chris [Morgan] and his team so there is no doubt from my side, after two and a half weeks.

“If you have a look on the kind of injuries we have then you know it’s nothing [to do] with the medical department. It’s because of hits [impacts] or other things.

“It’s normal in football that nobody wants to wait but we have to wait because recovery needs time. We have these two guys with Ingsy and Gomez they need a long time but I can see Henderson and [Jon] Flanagan they are closer but not on the pitch in this moment.

“Flanagan is on the pitch but he needs time after a long, long journey with his knee injury but he looks good.

“These boys and girls in the medical department they work so hard. We have to wait for [injured players] but we have to work with the other guys that’s how football works.”

Klopp is expected to make wholesale changes to his starting eleven following the League Cup win over Bournemouth with the likes of Simon Mignolet, Mamadou Sakho, Lucas Leiva, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana all set for recalls.

Liverpool head to the capital sitting ninth in the Premier League table and they’ll be looking to inflict yet more misery on Chelsea by taking home all three points this weekend.