Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool have been lucky with regards to an injury sustained by Harvey Elliott, but admits Luis Diaz’s latest setback felt like being “smashed in the face”.
The Reds are currently out in Dubai, where they are completing a warm-weather training camp in preparation for the return of the Premier League following the World Cup break on Boxing Day.
Liverpool, along with rivals Arsenal, are competing in a series of friendlies known as the Dubai Super Cup, with AC Milan up next on Friday, before they return to competitive action with a high-profile Carabao Cup clash at Manchester City on December 22.
They will hope for a better showing there than against Lyon, where they took an early lead through Fabio Carvalho only to collapse and lose 3-1 courtesy of an Alexandre Lacazette brace and effort from Bradley Barcola.
Liverpool’s injury problems reared their head once more in the first half of that encounter, with Elliott replaced before the half-hour mark in more worrying scenes.
However, Klopp is hopeful at this stage that the England Under-21 international’s issue was a minor contact injury that will not see him spend long on the sidelines.
“Harvey got a knock before we scored, Harvey got a knock. But I think we were lucky,” he said.
“He looks fine now but he feels it, that’s normal, there was contact. But I hope we were lucky in that moment.”
Liverpool have been cursed by ongoing injury issues all season and had experienced another sizable blow before the Lyon game, with Diaz experiencing a setback in his recovery from a serious knee problem suffered at Arsenal in October that is set to see him remain out for some time to come.
While the club have not yet put a timescale on his recovery, reports in the player’s native Colombia have suggested that he needs surgery and will be unavailable for another three months.
“Yeah, he was not in the best possible place,” Klopp said on losing Diaz once again. “It’s clear it’s a big disappointment for all of us, for him as well.
“It was a non-situation in training, honestly – nothing, felt something. [He] didn’t feel a lot next day but we wanted to be really cautious and said, ‘OK, come on, let’s have a look.’
“Yeah, then the news came and it was a proper smash in the face. But that’s it now.”
Liverpool also remain without Diogo Jota and Juventus loanee Arthur Melo with the Premier League’s return looming fast, though were at least boosted by the respective returns of Joel Matip and Naby Keita against Lyon.
“Very important, absolutely very important,” Klopp said of Matip’s comeback. “Yeah, so far he did pretty much everything in training. There was one session where we got advice to rest him a little bit, but it was not from him, it was from the medical department, [so] that’s what we did.
“Apart from that he could do everything. Looked good today, 45 minutes was again what we were allowed to use him. That’s what we did. That’s good. Naby’s first 30 minutes, I think, for a while. Very helpful as well, important position, important player, so that was [what] we should only use him [for], 30 minutes. I think against AC Milan next Friday they are probably able to play a bit longer.”
