Liverpool Team News: Klopp Confirms Double Blow, Key Man Passed Fit + Sakho Update

Premier League football returns this weekend as Liverpool entertain Leicester City at Anfield on Saturday night for what will be the Merseysiders first home game of the new season.

Ahead of the game, Jurgen Klopp has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s given Liverpoolfc.com a team news and injury update.

Let’s start with the good news. Klopp confirmed that Sadio Mane has trained as normal and is fit and available for selection to take on the defending champions this weekend.

Mane sparked fears he had suffered an injury after being withdrawn during the second half of Senegal’s African Cup of Nations qualifying win over Namibia last week but the attacker insists it was just precautionary and the 24-year-old is in contention to start on Saturday.

However, there wasn’t such positive news on Emre Can as Klopp revealed that the German international will miss the Leicester game as he continues to recover from a niggling ankle injury.

Can picked up the problem during the Reds second round victory over Burton Albion in the EFL Cup last month and was forced to miss the 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur before the international break.

The midfielder then withdrew from the Germany squad for their recent double header against Finland and Norway as he remained at Melwood to continue his treatment but the 22-year-old looks to have lost his battle to be fit.

Klopp also confirmed that Liverpool will be without Ragnar Klavan after the centre-back aggravated a knee injury during Estonia’s World Cup qualifier with Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday night.

It sounds like the 30-year-old could be facing a spell on the sidelines as Klopp says he has bone bruising and a ‘little rip’ in his knee but they’ll know the full extent of the injury this afternoon.

Klopp told the clubs website:

“Mane, I don’t know how it works and who said it, but it was absolutely nothing. He has trained since he was [back] here completely normally.

“Emre is different. In the Burton game, he didn’t even need an opponent – he did it by himself – but this little issue with the ankle.

“It is much better but Emre didn’t have a perfect pre-season and didn’t have a few games and unfortunately another two-and-a-half-week break now.

“Maybe he will be back today or tomorrow in team training but it will not be enough for the Leicester game.

“Another player with problems is Ragnar Klavan. He had this really unlucky game. He had a bone bruise and a little rip, not too deep, around the knee.

“We don’t need to stitch it but we have to wait. It is obviously a little bit painful so we have to see what happened overnight. We’ll know more this afternoon.”

The final update from the Liverpool boss was on Mamadou Sakho and Klopp insists the defender doesn’t have to regain his trust after failing to secure a loan move away from the club on deadline day but just has to get himself fit again.

Klopp is quoted as saying by Football365:

“Now it’s about making Mama fit, which he isn’t after his time out. Then we will see what happens.”

“It’s not a problem. You don’t have to gain my trust. It’s a situation we have spoken about before.

“He didn’t play football for a long time, he needs to play football. That’s difficult here because the other players are fit.

“We had to speak about it before the window closes – that’s what I did.”

It will be a huge boost for Liverpool that Mane is available as he’s been excellent since joining from Southampton in the summer but Klopp will be sweating on the fitness of Klavan. In the defenders absence, Joel Matip is expected to continue alongside Dejan Lovren in the middle of defence against Leicester this weekend.