Naby Keita won’t be eligible to play for Liverpool against Ajax on Wednesday night despite his recent return to training.
The Guinean hasn’t featured since the Reds’ win over Man City in the Community Shield back in July because of illness and injury, and has only just returned following a lengthy lay-off after injuring his thigh.
Returning to training last week, the 27-year-old was back in full team training ahead of Liverpool ’s trip to Ajax. However, he isn’t eligible to face the Dutch giants after Jurgen Klopp left the midfielder out of his Champions League squad along with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
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“The expected return date was somewhere in October and that is why we had to make the decision [with the Champions League squad],” the German explained last month. “Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is the same.
"That is why the two boys were not in the squad because the expected return date, which always can differ a little bit, is why we had to make the decision now or last week and that is why we made the decision."
However, even if Keita had been eligible to face Ajax, he would have been unlikely to feature with Klopp confirming Liverpool plan to ease the midfielder back into, the same way they did for Oxlade-Chamberlain. The England international returned to training ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League trip to Rangers two weeks ago, before making his comeback as a substitute in Saturday’s defeat to Nottingham Forest.
“We can't rush it anyway," the German told reporters ahead of the trip to the East Midlands. "It was a tough injury, a serious injury. He's now back but only in parts of training.
"From Monday on, Naby and Ibou, if everything goes as planned, will be involved in full team training. That means from there we count days. His football pre-season starts then.
"He was out for a while, like Ox was. Ox was on the bench but I don't think he was ready to play the last game (against West Ham) but he's getting close though. He's one or two weeks ahead of Naby which is very helpful for us as well.
"It's now about making it possible so he can sustain an awful lot of games coming up. There are a lot of football games to play and I can't wait to have him back properly."
He continued: "(He'll be back) Before (the World Cup). It's not a pre-season like five or six weeks. What we can do in rehab with these tough muscle injuries, they do everything apart from team training. You cannot replace team training.
"They do football work, they run more than we do in training sessions because they have to. But nothing in rehab can replace a football session. It's a completely different intensity to everything you can produce in rehab.
"The football part of the pre-season starts now. Physically, he could probably run a marathon when he starts on Monday but that isn't helpful because he needs to do other movements.
"As long as we can give the boys time to recover fully and get as fit as possible, we always try to do that. The problem is when you start with injuries in the season, the boys who come back very often have to play too early because there are no other options.
"In this case, I hope not. I hope we can do that and give him time until he can play. But maybe next week I tell you Naby Keita starts. I don't know, we will see."
Joining Liverpool in a £52.75m from RB Leipzig in 2018, Keita has won every major honour on offer since joining the Reds but his time at Anfield has been plagued by injury. Limited to 72 starts in over four years, he currently faces an uncertain future with his contract set to expire next summer.
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