Liverpool team news update: Blow as Klopp confirms 7 players will miss Brighton game

Liverpool will be looking to keep pace with the Premier League leaders by beating Brighton at Anfield tonight.

Unfortunately, Jurgen Klopp continues to manage a lengthy injury list and the Liverpool boss will be without at least seven first team squad players for the visit of Brighton later this evening.

It was confirmed earlier this week that Joel Matip has been ruled out for the rest of the season after the Cameroonian international suffered an ankle ligament injury during Liverpool’s 3-1 win at Tottenham last week.

Virgil van Dijk has been stepping up his rehabilitation from a serious knee injury recently but he’s still facing a race against time to play again this season while Joe Gomez is also unlikely to feature again this campaign as he’s still recovering from his own knee ligament surgery.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of tonight’s game, Klopp confirmed to Liverpoolfc.com that none of his other injury absentees will return for the Brighton game so he’ll have a similar squad to the one that featured against West Ham on Sunday.

That means Sadio Mane will remain on the sidelines after missing the Hammers game at the weekend with a minor knock. There were hopes he’d return tonight but it looks like he’s still out along with Naby Keita – who’s still nursing a muscle issue that’s hampered him in recent weeks.

Fabinho is edging closer to making his return after missing Liverpool’s last five games but the visit of Brighton will come too soon for the Brazilian international so he remains unavailable for selection.

As we reported earlier, Diogo Jota has stepped-up his rehabilitation from a knee injury after being pictured in light individual training today but the attacker is still a couple of weeks away from being in contention.

With so many defenders on the sidelines, Liverpool were forced into the transfer market on deadline day and they snapped up Ben Davies from Preston while Ozan Kabak arrived on an initial loan deal from Schalke.

However, Klopp has admitted the pair will need time to get up to speed with the clubs tactics so it’s unlikely we’ll see either Davies or Kabak starting against Brighton tonight – but they may be on the bench.

So, Klopp still has a lengthy injury list to contend with as he looks for a win this evening that would see Liverpool move to within just one point of league leaders Man City – although they could extend their lead if they beat Burnley at Turf Moor.