Liverpool are hopeful Luis Diaz will return to full team training next week as they begin their preparations for the Premier League run-in.
Diaz hasn't featured for the Reds since limping off at Arsenal in October with a knee injury that later required surgery having been aggravated at the warm weather training camp in Dubai two months later.
The winger has been stepping up his rehabilitation at the AXA Training Centre in recent weeks and was last Tuesday spotted running on the grass as the remainder of the squad were put through their paces ahead of the Champions League clash at Real Madrid the following day.
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Now Diaz is being primed for a return to full team training when the majority of the squad are back at Kirkby at the start of next week ahead of the final two months of the Premier League season.
Those players not on duty for their national teams during the current international break have been permitted time away from the training ground while undergoing own individual fitness programmes, as is usually the case with Jurgen Klopp's squad.
They will reconvene next week, while the 12 Liverpool players on international duty will join up later in the week ahead of the Premier League visit to Manchester City the following Saturday. The Reds stand seven points adrift of the top four, albeit with two games in hand.
There is a mild injury worry over Darwin Nunez, who suffered a cut ankle against Real Madrid last week and subsequently withdrew from the Uruguay squad for their forthcoming friendlies against Japan and South Korea.
But with Diaz poised for a return and Joe Gomez having recovered from a hamstring issue to make the bench at the Bernabeu, Thiago Alcantara - who has missed the last eight games with a hip injury - is Liverpool's only long-term injury concern for the campaign with teenage duo Stefan Bajcetic and Calvin Ramsay already ruled out until next season.
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