Luis Diaz, Thiago Alcantara and Naby Keita will miss Liverpool’s trip to Manchester City but Darwin Nunez should be fit to feature at the Etihad Stadium.
Winger Diaz, who has been out since October with a knee injury, is back in training but not yet ready to make his comeback while midfielder Thiago is still sidelined by a hip problem.
Keita, who has had an injury-hit season, is out again but forward Nunez is recovering after being hurt in Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid and missing Uruguay’s March internationals against South Korea and Japan.
Manager Jurgen Klopp said: “Luis is back in small parts of training after a very long, long time out. It was fantastic to have him back, it was such an energiser and a boost but he will not train today with us. He is already outside running. This week was the first step back into training, next week he will increase that and then he is ready. I think but we have to judge him every day how he deals with the intensity but it looks really promising.
“Naby is out. He came back with a muscle injury from the national team. We will see how long it takes but the season is not too long. Thiago is in a good way but not back in team training yet. I think if things go well he will probably be part of next week’s team training.
“Darwin couldn’t train for two or three days this week still because of the cut he got against Real Madrid on his foot but he was yesterday [Thursday] back in training so he is definitely in contention.”
Klopp said Liverpool’s plans will not change much if City top scorer Erling Haaland is not fit as they will focus on stopping the supply lines to Pep Guardiola’s forwards.
He explained: “When you prepare a game, all the things are to avoid the final pass and that is where Erling comes into the game and makes the difference. But if he doesn’t play and [Julian] Alvarez does it makes City different but not weaker. He is obviously a top striker.”
