Liverpool boss confirms Alexander-Arnold injury boost

Liverpool can move top of the Premier League table with a win over Watford at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime.

Ahead of the game, Jurgen Klopp has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon. The Reds boss provided a team news update which included the latest on Trent Alexander-Arnold, Naby Keita and Andrew Robertson.

Alexander-Arnold missed Liverpool’s win over Nottingham Forest in the quarter-final of the FA Cup before the international break. The full-back was side-lined with a hamstring injury and was subsequently forced to withdraw from the England squad.

Klopp was initially expecting Alexander-Arnold to be out for a number of weeks, however, the German coach has revealed a major boost today after confirming the 23-year-old’s injury isn’t as serious as first feared.

Klopp says Alexander-Arnold will resume full training today and will be assessed before a decision is made over his availability to face Watford – although the Liverpool boss suggests it will be ‘tight’.

There was also good news surrounding Robertson as Klopp confirmed the defender  is ‘fine‘ after testing positive for covid before Scotland’s fixutres during the international break.

However, there remains a doubt over the fitness of Keita. The midfielder picked up a knee injury while away on international duty and was ruled out of Guinea’s game with South Africa.

Klopp has confirmed Keita was unable to train on Thursday but will be checked today before a decision is made over his availability to face Watford this weekend.

Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com:

“Trent trained yesterday, parts, and will be in full training today – and we have to see what we do with it.

“I know and I heard how it is obviously in this country – it’s more than in other countries, I can tell you – Trent wanted to go to the national team, just to make sure that everybody [is aware]. He couldn’t.

“You can see the scans, with these pictures you cannot go anywhere. But sometimes injuries, thank God, are not that serious that you are out for five or six weeks; sometimes it’s two weeks and that’s the case with Trent.

“It will be tight for tomorrow but it’s possible after all I hear. It’s different if you are part of team training, it depends what you could do before and he was really with our rehab and fitness department, it was really intense what he did before he trained with us.

“So physically, he should be fine, now I have to make the decision about rhythm and these kinds of things.”

On whether the No.66 will ‘definitely’ be ready for next week’s Champions League trip to Benfica, the manager said: “I think so.”

“Yesterday Naby couldn’t train, felt a little bit here and there. I don’t know exactly yet, nobody called me yet about Naby for today. So we will see how he is for today. Apart from that, we had them pretty much all available.”

“Yeah, but that was kind of OK. Then he trained once and then he felt [it] again, so we need to see. Not sure if he will be, or can be, involved tomorrow.”

Liverpool head into the weekend sitting second in the table but they’re just one point behind Man City so can leapfrog the leaders into top spot with a win over Watford tomorrow lunchtime.