Liverpool take on Manchester City in the Community Shield on the 4th of August and it looks like Sadio Mane will not be a part of that game.
Sadio Mane along with Mo Salah was one of the best performers for Liverpool last season and during the summer he also had a wonderful run with his national side.
The winger helped Senegal reach the AFCON finals only to lose to Algeria 1-0.
And now Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Sadio Mane will be on holiday for about two weeks meaning he will report back for training only after the Community Shield match vs Man City.
“He is in good shape,” Klopp told the Liverpool’s official website.
“Obviously they had a celebration in Senegal and I’m happy about that because it showed that they respect the competition and saw the second place as a success, which is nice.
“He is now on holiday, not the longest one – he will be back on August 5, after the Manchester City game. That means he had two weeks. There is four or five days to prepare for Norwich, 10 days for Chelsea [in the UEFA Super Cup].”
This will obviously be a bit of a concern for Jurgen Klopp since he does not have a great like for like replacement for Sadio Mane down that right flank.
But the German will not be too bothered about it since this will be the first game of the season and even Man City will be trying to find their rhythm.
While Sadio Mane will be a miss, but Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Mo Salah and all the Brazilian players who were involved in the Copa America should be available for selection for the Community Shield match.
“Mo and the Brazilians will come for Evian,” Klopp had told Liverpool’s official website last week.
“It means then we have nearly a week until City [in the Community Shield], a strong 12 days until Norwich and then 15 or 16 days until Chelsea [in the Super Cup].
“We have to see. The good thing is when you have a short break you don’t lose a lot. They needed three weeks and so we told them [to take it], but they train now again already.
“I would have preferred it if they had come back after a week, but that would make absolutely no sense! So, [they have] these three weeks and then we will have them here for pre-season.”
