Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Jurgen Klopp has shared an update on all of his long-term injury absentees, namely Jordan Henderson, Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez.
We saw a video of van Dijk running on the grass posted on social media on Thursday, so as you can imagine, one of the topics of conversation in Klopp’s press conference was van Dijk’s fitness.
Klopp said that van Dijk is at the same stage as Henderson, Gomez and Matip, claiming that they’re all quite a long way away from being back in contention for selection.
“I don’t have enough English words to say the same thing that often. Yes he is running like Hendo, Joe and Joel. That’s all good, imagine if they weren’t able to run? That would be bad, but they are running and Rehab always starts with straight line running. I’m not sure if you saw him running in curves, or just straight, so there are a lot of things to come, a lot of steps before finally ready to join team training, especially with long-term injuries.” Klopp said
“They are all quite a way from that. Nobody has told me to fasten my seatbelt and that they are in team training next week. But they are in a good way,”
In terms of Gomez, Matip and van Dijk, this isn’t anything we don’t already know.
However, updates on Henderson’s injury status have been rather scarce, so it’s good to know where he stands.
Sadly, it doesn’t sound as though the Liverpool skipper will be back in action anytime soon.
Fingers crossed Henderson is back before the end of the season and perhaps more importantly, fit for England’s European Championship campaign.
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