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Jurgen Klopp has said Liverpool’s players are sick ahead of their Premier League against Manchester City.
Speaking at Friday afternoon’s press conference, Klopp was revealing the fitness of several members of his squad when he said the players had suffered “stomach viruses” during the foreign break but had thankfully recovered before the match at the Etihad Stadium.
Speaking of midfielders Naby Keita and Thiago Alcantara, he said: “Naby is absent. He returned with a national muscle injury. We’ll see how long it takes.
“Thiago is fine, but he’s not part of the team’s training yet. It will be part of next week’s training. Rhys Williams has something. We had abdominal disorders here and there, but it stopped two days ago. “
The fact that the bouts of illness appear to have ceased will be music to the ears of Klopp, who enters the match at the start of a big week for Liverpool, who also face Chelsea on Tuesday and host leaders Arsenal next Sunday.
Speaking about the week in form, Klopp said: “It’s like a Champions League week. I’m super excited.
“We are not stupid. We know that the last game against [Real] Madrid was not a smart game, before that at Bournemouth it was not a smart game, the previous one [the 7-0 win against Manchester United] world class. We have to start from there and react to the other two games. “
On City in particular, he added: “It’s a super vital game. This is the only thing that is not another of all the other years. We know it’s a massive game, a huge week ahead. Because they deserve all the attention, we can, ‘I don’t think about the other games. ‘
City boss Pep Guardiola maintained the fitness of his star striker Erling Haaland ahead of the game, but Klopp says he is not too worried about whether the Norwegian plays or not.
“Not too much,” he said.
“When you prepare for a game, you prepare everything to avoid the last pass, that’s where Erling comes in. He’s a smart striker, but they’ve become champions without a striker. That’s the way it is, you never know one. “
Klopp proved the game came too soon for Colombian winger Luis Diaz despite returning to training, but Darwin Nunez is expected to play after overcoming a foot injury.
“Luis is back in small portions of education. It’s to see him again, but possibly he wouldn’t be in education with us today,” he said.
“This week was the first step towards training the team. Next week, we’ll develop it. It looks promising, we are in the final stages. “
“Darwin couldn’t exercise for two or three days this week, but he exercised yesterday. He’s back in the race. “