Liverpool take on Leicester City in their next EPL game and Jurgen Klopp is going to miss three first-team players which include Sadio Mane.
Mane won the AFCON with Senegal and Jurgen Klopp had already made it clear that the winger will not be in contention for Thursday’s game. But while speaking to the press, the manager has now added that Jordan Henderson is suffering from a back problem and is also likely to miss out.
“Hendo has a little bit [of a] back problem from the last game and Sadio is not here, but neither issue will be long term, so that’s good,” Klopp said, during Wednesday’s press conference.
Divock Origi is another player who is set to miss out since he’s just returned to training after recovering from his injury and this game will come too early for him.
Apart from these three players, everyone is available including Luis Diaz who picked up a knock against Cardiff City.
Henderson’s absence will not be a problem because Thiago has come back from his injury and even Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is also back in training after testing positive for COVID-19 last week.
Perhaps the biggest boost for the Liverpool manager is the return of Mo Salah who was on the losing side in the AFCON final and as per the manager, the right-winger is very much in contention to start against the Foxes.
Mo Salah never stops 😤 pic.twitter.com/cz2HBOV55K
— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 8, 2022
If Salah is fit to start then almost everything is sorted for the manager since both Firmino and Diogo Jota are available for selection as well. This means Firmino, Jota and Mo Salah could be the starters while Luis Diaz comes off the bench sometime in the second half.
Leicester have several injuries of their own and they have also been in really poor form recently so Liverpool automatically go into this game as the favourites. And with Diaz and Mo Salah likely to play, there’s a very slim chance that Jurgen Klopp’s side will secure anything other than all three points.
