Klopp Sweating On Key Duo As Injured Liverpool Stars Return To Melwood For Treatment

Jurgen Klopp is sweating over the fitness of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk as the key Liverpool duo return to Melwood today to have their injuries assessed by club doctors, according to the Evening Standard.

Salah scored a morale-boosting goal during Egypt’s 4-1 victory in their African Cup of Nations qualifier against eSwatini on Friday night as he found the back of the net with an audacious effort straight from a corner just before half-time.

However, the Liverpool forward limped out of the game in the 88th minute and was immediately withdrawn from the Egypt squad ahead of the return fixture against eSwatini in Manzini tomorrow.

Salah travelled back to Merseyside over the weekend and the Evening Standard reports that he is back at Melwood today to have his injury further assessed by Liverpool’s medical team and begin treatment.

We’ll have to wait and see how serious the issue is but Egypt’s assistant manager Hany Ramzy appeared confident the injury was nothing major after claiming Salah had just suffered a muscle strain.

Ramzy is quoted by the Evening Standard as telling beIN Sports after the game on Friday:

“The primary diagnosis confirms it’s just a strain and no muscle rupture is apparent.

“But the player will need to undergo scans to determine the full extent of the injury and the time needed to heal.

“It’s nothing major, we’ll do the best we can to help him recover. We hope he’s fit as soon as possible.”

Salah hasn’t hit the heights of last season yet this campaign as he’s struggled to find his best form so far but it would still be a huge blow to Klopp if the 26-year-old was ruled out for any significant period of time.

Liverpool are also set to assess van Dijk as the defender has returned home early from international duty having pulled out of the Holland squad ahead of their friendly with Belgium due to an on-going rib injury.

van Dijk has been nursing the problem in recent weeks and played through the pain to score during Holland’s impressive 3-0 win over Germany in the Nations League on Saturday.

The centre-back may have aggravated his rib injury as he’s now back at Melwood to be assessed by Liverpool’s doctors and Klopp will be praying van Dijk will be passed fit for Liverpool’s trip to Huddersfield Town this coming weekend.