Team news: Liverpool dealt fresh blow but trio fit for Everton trip + Alisson boost

Liverpool get back to Premier League action after the international break when they take on Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday lunchtime.

Ahead of the game, Jurgen Klopp has been speaking to the media via his virtual press conference this afternoon and the Reds boss provided a team news and injury update including the latest on several members of his squad.

Let’s start with the bad news and Klopp confirmed a fresh blow after revealing that midfielder Naby Keita will miss the Merseyside Derby this weekend due to an unspecified fitness problem.

However, all Liverpool players returned from international duty without issue so Klopp has no other fresh injury concerns to worry about and he should have three players back in contention.

Klopp confirmed that Thiago Alcantara and Sadio Mane are both available to face Everton after completing their self-isolation following positive Covid tests. The Reds boss says they’ve kept themselves fit during their isolation so they should be back in the squad tomorrow.

Centre-back Joel Matip is also back in contention after taking part in training at Melwood this week having recovered from an injury problem so Liverpool will have another option at the back.

There was also a positive update on Alisson Becker as Klopp says the goalkeeper is making excellent strides in his recovery from a shoulder injury but he was reluctant to put a fixed timeframe on his return.

Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com:

“[It’s] very, very positive with Ali, it looks really good. [He’s] made big steps. I don’t have a timeframe, but it looks really good.

“That’s it, pretty much. Naby will not be ready. Apart from that, long-term of course, Oxlade-Chamberlain is not and so on, but they all came back healthy from the internationals.”

“We all learn on a daily basis about it. They [Mane & Thiago] are in training for five or six days [now]. Then, of course, we assess that every day. We have our specific measurements, how we do it with heart rate and how we can measure if they are more fatigued than usual and stuff like this.

“They both looked really good, to be honest. We are very close with the doctors and we don’t want to – and would never – risk anybody.

“Usually in these cases, in at least the last three, four of five days of the quarantine the boys are already ready. They cannot come out of quarantine, but they are on treadmills, on the bike and these kind of things so when they start training again it is not that they start from nil. They have still a proper shape, so it should be fine.”

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain remains on the sidelines with a knee injury while Kostantinos Tsimikas is out with a thigh problem so they’ll miss the trip to Everton along with Alisson and Keita this weekend.

Liverpool head to Goodison Park looking to get back on track following their humiliating 7-2 defeat to Aston Villa before the international break so Klopp will be demanding a much-improved display from the champions.