Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum suffered a muscle injury in Liverpool FC’s 2-0 victory over Watford on Saturday and immediately there were fears about the midfield area during the busy festive period.
Wijnaldum has been a key player for the Reds during the current season and with Liverpool set to play in the Club World Cup, the midfield area could be pretty stretched.
And speaking after the Watford game, even Jurgen Klopp failed to provide any clarity on the injury.
“Muscle. I don’t know anything else,” said the manager in a press conference.
“[Whether he can travel to Qatar] is actually in the moment one of my smallest concerns – he could probably fly – but my problem is more what exactly the injury is and I don’t know that yet.
“It’s a muscle thing and you never want to have a muscle injury.
“But in these moments it always makes it immediately more difficult, but it’s not only us, all other teams have the same problems. We have to deal with these situations, that’s clear.
“We will see – tomorrow we know more.”
Now though, the Liverpool fans can breathe a big sigh of relief as Wijnaldum has been included in the Club World Cup squad.
The Anfield outfit are set to take on Mexican side Monterrey in the semi-finals of the tournament on Wednesday and the Dutch international will be flying with the rest of the squad to Qatar but it remains to be seen whether the manager will give him some game time during the match.
As per some rumours, Wijnaldum is head to the middle-east in order to get some warm weather training under his belt while others feel the midfielder could be used against Monterrey.
Here’s the Club World Cup squad[as updated by Liverpool FC]:
Alisson, Van Dijk, Wijnaldum, Milner, Keita, Firmino, Mane, Salah, Gomez, Adrian, Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana, Lonergan, Shaqiri, Robertson, Origi, Jones, Alexander-Arnold, Williams.
