Liverpool Team News: Klopp Offers Positive Update On Trio Ahead Of Man Utd Game

Liverpool will be looking to give their title challenge a major boost when we take on Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Jurgen Klopp has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s offered reporters a team news and injury update.

The Reds boss was pleased to confirm positive news on Philippe Coutinho, Joel Matip and Jordan Henderson with the trio all able to take part in training yesterday ahead of the trip to Manchester.

Coutinho made his long-awaited comeback with a 30 minute substitute appearance during Liverpool’s EFL Cup semi-final first leg defeat at Southampton on Wednesday night.

The Brazilian international had been on the sidelines for over six weeks due to an ankle ligament injury but he’s reacted well from his run-out at St Mary’s and is now back in contention for a starting spot at Old Trafford this weekend.

With Sadio Mane unavailable due to his participation at the African Cup of Nations we could see Coutinho restored in attack alongside Roberto Firmino and Daniel Sturridge on Sunday.

Matip has missed nine of Liverpool’s last ten games in all competitions after struggling to overcome a niggling ankle injury that he aggravated during the 2-2 draw with West Ham back in November.

The Cameroon centre-back has returned to full training this week and came through another session at Melwood on Thursday which could see him come in to contention against United this weekend.

However, Klopp may feel it’s too risky to throw Matip straight back in for such an important game so we might see Ragnar Klavan continuing alongside Dejan Lovren in the middle of Liverpool’s defence on Sunday.

The final update from Klopp confirmed that Henderson is also back in contention for a starting spot this weekend after recovering from a heel injury that’s kept him out of the last two games.

The Reds skipper trained successfully on Thursday so unless he suffers any adverse reaction over the next 48 hours, I think we could see the midfielder back in the team to face United with Emre Can the most likely to make way.

Klopp is quoted as saying by the Express:

“They trained yesterday. I will wait to see how they reacted and make decisions.

The last game was only two days ago. They are much closer than any other game in the last few weeks.”