Alexis Mac Allister will miss Liverpool’s top-of-the-table clash with Arsenal and the World Cup winner is in a race against time to be fit for the New Year’s Day game against Newcastle.
But Jurgen Klopp received a double injury boost as scans showed Ryan Gravenberch did not sustain a hamstring injury in Sunday’s draw with Manchester United while Diogo Jota could soon make his comeback.
Mac Allister has missed Liverpool’s last three games and assistant manager Pep Lijnders said: “It will go into the New Year but we play the first of January so we will see. Alexis is progressing well, he doesn’t have pain anymore, which is a good thing. It was worse than we first thought, but he is progressing well, no pain.”
Gravenberch might not be involved in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against West Ham but will be available soon.
“It is good, it is not often you send a player to the scan and it comes back with nothing,” Lijnders added. “Only that he is extra fatigued. There is no muscle tear. He can train later today and we will judge it. I can’t see why he won’t be available for the next weeks.”
Forward Jota has been out since the 1-1 draw with Manchester City but Lijnders expects that the Portugal international will soon be in contention again.
“He is doing ball work outside so he is getting better and better but always with the hamstrings you want to give it two or three days more but he is close,” he added.
However, teenage winger Ben Doak will require surgery on a torn meniscus and will be out for a while.
Striker Darwin Nunez has not scored in his last 10 games but Lijnders believes he is performing better than he did in his first year at Anfield.
He explained: “Darwin is full of desire, you see that in each game and if you only judge players on goals, that would be so unfair. Darwin is playing a much better season that last year, the way he defends, He helps us a lot when we are deep and we can play with him as a reference. This guy is full of fire and that is what our stadium likes.”
