Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Virgil van Dijk is fit to start again for Liverpool but Calvin Ramsay will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery.
The Dutchman hasn’t played since suffering a hamstring injury in last month’s loss away at Brentford. But he returned to the matchday squad for Monday’s Merseyside derby victory over Everton, and was an unused substitute as the Reds ran out 2-0 winners.
With Liverpool travelling to fourth-placed Newcastle United on Saturday before hosting Real Madrid in the Champions League round-of-16 next week, Klopp has confirmed the centre-back is fit to make a playing return against the Magpies.
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“I think so, yeah,” the German said when asked if the defender was fit to start. “Yesterday he looked absolutely ready. I think today he will look the same and we will make a decision.”
While Van Dijk was unused against Everton, Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino both made their own returns off the bench against the Blues. Ahead of Newcastle, Klopp revealed Liverpool will continue to manage the pair carefully after lengthy lay-offs, before confirming four players have been ruled out of Saturday’s game.
“Bobby, in the end it was eight weeks (out) as well so that's long time,” he told reporters. “Diogo was longer out. So we have to look how we can use them.
“It was important they get time but you could see they need time. It was clear but we knew that would happen. That’s why we tried to get them on as early as possible and allowed them some minutes.
“It’s completely different, whatever you do on the training pitch, these first 10-15 minutes in an intense game feel like torture. You have to go through this but it wasn’t too long so they could train properly the next day. It’s obviously very helpful for this week. One session today and we will see how we line up.
“Same squad possible as Monday night. has happened, nobody has come back since then. Ibou not yet, Luis not yet. But that’s it pretty much. Nothing new happened on the injury side. Thiago, not available. Calvin had surgery, not available. But that’s it.”
Elaborating on Ramsay’s injury, Klopp confirmed the defender will miss the rest of the season when explaining how Liverpool are managing the Scotland international’s return.
“Yeah, that’s what I heard. Obviously he will miss the rest of the season, serious,” he said. “But with Calvin it’s really special. Calvin arrived here and had a back problem I had never heard before. When you are in the growing process, it can happen.
“But he played all the games and didn’t really feel anything. He came here, we made a proper check and there is something so we needed to take a closer look. He had no real pain but wasn’t allowed to train for a long period because otherwise you can, for a young person who is still growing, create real problems in the long term so there was no chance.
“Coming back, into a new team, I asked him. We spoke when it was clear he had the new injury. I had him in my office and asked, ‘What do you think, how often have you been your absolute best?’ Yourself, pretty much. He said, ‘Not often.’ I said, ‘Never.’ Not one day so now we have to use that.
“You want to adapt to a new thing but he didn’t train for four months. It’s really tricky. Now he has this injury and his season is over. Even if he could come back a bit earlier, it makes no sense.
“Now it’s to build the boy up physically and then have a new start when we go again. So we play catch-up with him all the time. He’s a great talent, a real talent who had the most unlucky start possible.
“In the end, when he finishes his career at 36 or 37, if he can say then, ‘The most difficult year of my career was the first,’ or the second in his case, maybe, that’s absolutely okay. All the others were better because we did the right things in the first two so that’s what we try to do now.”
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