Liverpool get back to Champions League action when they welcome Atalanta to Anfield on Wednesday night.
Ahead of the game, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s provided the latest team news including a positive update on Mohamed Salah.
The Egyptian forward was forced to miss Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Leicester City at the weekend after testing positive for Covid-19 while away with his country during the recent international break.
However, Salah was given the green light to resume full training on Monday after returning a negative test result and Klopp says the 28-year-old is now back in contention to face Atalanta tomorrow night.
Otherwise, Klopp was keeping his cards close to his chest as he was reluctant to offer any further updates on Liverpool’s injured players in fear of handing Atalanta an advantage ahead of this important group stage clash.
All the German coach was prepared to divulge is that one of his injured men is ‘closer’ to returning to action while another one is ‘not that close’.
Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com:
“Mo trained with the team yesterday and looked really good. The test was negative – all the tests were negative – so, if nothing changed since yesterday, he is available. Now we have to see what we do with that because he was quarantined until three days ago.”
“All the rest, no news. One looks closer, the other one looks not that close, so that’s how the situation is and we’ll see who is available.
“I don’t want to speak too much about it because I have no idea who Atalanta can bring into this game, so why should we give any kind of information to them?”
It remains to be seen who the players in question are but they could be Thiago Alcantara and Jordan Henderson as the midfield duo have been working on their fitness over the past few days. Henderson is believed to be closer to returning to action so the Liverpool skipper could be involved against Atalanta.
Elsewhere, the Reds will continue to be without Trent Alexander-Arnold as he’s still working his way back from a calf injury while Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez are facing lengthy spells on the sidelines.
Naby Keita is also set to miss the visit of Atalanta after picking up a thigh injury against Leicester while Xherdan Shaqiri and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain remain unavailable for selection so Liverpool could be without up to 8 players tomorrow evening if Henderson doesn’t prove his fitness.
