Liverpool Boss Provides Injury Update On Coutinho, Firmino & Sturridge

Jurgen Klopp has given Liverpoolfc.com an update on the fitness of Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Daniel Sturridge following today’s 2-0 win over Sunderland.

The Reds eased to a relatively comfortable victory at Anfield thanks to second half goals from Divock Origi and James Milner, however, the game looks to have come at a cost for the Merseysiders.

Coutinho was stretchered from the field wearing an ankle brace after jarring his right ankle following a 50:50 challenge with Sunderland defender Didier Ndong midway through the first half.

The Brazilian international looked to be in real pain and footage of the incident [which can be viewed here] appears to show the ankle snapping back, suggesting it could be a serious injury.

However, speaking to the clubs official website after the game, Klopp was in no mood to speculate over the severity of Coutinho’s injury and simply said they’d have to wait for scans to be done before they’ll know how long he’ll be out for.

Firmino was also forced off during the closing stages of the win at Anfield this afternoon and Klopp has confirmed that the Brazilian attacker was suffering from a calf problem.

Sturridge was left out of the squad entirely for today’s game and the Reds boss has revealed that the England international has been unable to train recently due to his own calf injury, but they have no idea when the striker will be back.

Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com:

“We have to wait for the scan. What we know in this moment is it is something with the ankle and that’s it, so we all have to wait.

“He had pain, but pain gets better. In the first moment, it was obviously very painful but when I saw him at half-time, he said the pain was much better. We have to wait.

“If I have no idea what it is, how can I imagine how long it will be [out]? I am actually quite an optimistic guy – so I hope he can train tomorrow!”

“He [Firmino] is much better than Phil, but has pain in the calf.”

“He [Sturridge] had a tight calf. He hasn’t trained for two days and I have no idea when he is back. It is not sure that he can train tomorrow, so he was out because of this injury.”

Klopp will no doubt be sweating over the result of Coutinho’s scans as it would be a huge blow to their title chances if they were to lose the Brazilian star for any period of time.

Ordinarily, you’d expect Liverpool to be able to cope reasonably well if Coutinho got injured but with both Firmino and Sturridge also suffering knocks, Klopp’s attacking options suddenly look stretched so I’m sure he’ll be praying for good news on the trio.

The last thing Liverpool want is injuries derailing what has become an exciting campaign with today’s win over Sunderland seeing the Anfield club temporarily go top of the table before Chelsea beat Spurs this evening.