Liverpool Team News: Jurgen Klopp Admits Fitness Concern Over Key Man

Liverpool will be looking to turn things around when they entertain Southampton in the second leg of their EFL Cup semi final tie on Wednesday night.

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 update.

Thankfully for Liverpool the German coach confirmed to the clubs website that they suffered no fresh injury concerns following Saturday’s hugely disappointing 3-2 defeat at home to Swansea City.

However, Klopp did reveal that there is a slight worry over Jordan Henderson as he’s continuing to feel discomfort in a heel injury that’s caused the skipper problems this season.

Henderson was forced to miss three games earlier this month after suffering a heel injury during Liverpool’s win over Manchester City on New Year’s Eve.

The 26-year-old returned to play the full ninety minutes in Liverpool’s draw against Manchester United last weekend before being rested for the FA Cup replay at Plymouth Argyle.

The midfielder was back in the starting eleven on Saturday but Klopp has confirmed that the injury is still causing Henderson discomfort so his training schedule has had to be adjusted accordingly.

The former Sunderland star suffered with problems to the opposite heel last season and Klopp says the club have learnt from that experience to help them deal with Henderson’s issues this time around.

On Henderson, he told the clubs website:

“It’s different, it’s similar but still different. We know much more from last year about it,”

“We don’t train a lot in this period between the games so instead of running one day, when the players who have played 90 minutes are running for recovery, he’s on the bike – that’s maybe the only difference with what we do with him.

“The rest is how I said – you don’t use the phrase ‘bite on his teeth’ [grit his teeth]? You know what it means, it’s not the moment to feel nothing, he always feels a little bit, but he can cope with it.”

Obviously it will be a concern for Liverpool that Henderson is struggling to overcome this niggling heel problem but it sounds as though Klopp is confident it’s not causing the midfielder too much discomfort so he should be able to cope with it.

The skipper is expected to start on Wednesday when Liverpool will be looking to overturn a one-goal deficit following their first leg defeat at St Mary’s with a place in the final at Wembley awaiting the victor.