Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold(TAA) and Diogo Jota were major doubts for the Reds’ clash vs Watford but Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that both of them will play on Saturday.
TAA missed the FC Porto and Manchester City games due to a muscle injury but the England international has returned to full training and will be available for selection.
Jota, on the other hand, was part of the Portuguese national squad during the international break but he did not train due to a muscle injury.
“Diogo Jota was dismissed by the national team manager Fernando Santos, after being considered unavailable by the FPF Health and Performance Unit to face Luxembourg, in a meeting to be held this Tuesday,” said a statement from the Portuguese Football Federation, as quoted.
“The Liverpool player, who has already left the stage of the National Team, has done conditioning work since the beginning of the international break, having also missed the match against Qatar.”
But along with TAA, the forward is also fully fit and is likely to get a starting role vs the Hornets.
The manager said, as per the club’s official website: “They are all good, they are all in a good way, let me say it like this.
“So it looks really like Trent and Diogo will be fine, they will train with us tomorrow completely normal, that’s the plan.”
While the return of TAA and Jota is surely good news for the Liverpool boss but he’s still without Thiago Alcantara as the manager has confirmed that the Watford game will come too early for the Spaniard.
He added: “Thiago needs probably a little bit longer, [he] was not in team training yet – that’s always not a good sign for starting the next game.
“And the rest [of the] international [players], some are back, obviously some are not back yet. And we will see.”
TAA and Diogo Jota will come straight into the starting line up but the unavailability of Thiago is a bit of a concern since Fabinho is also absent(due to international duty). This means Jordan Henderson will have to slot into the defensive midfielder’s role.
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