Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker is closing in on a return to action following his abdominal injury, but Wednesday’s pre-season game against Red Bull Salzburg comes too soon for the Brazilian, manager Jurgen Klopp said on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old has not played since Liverpool’s 4-0 defeat by Manchester United in Thailand earlier this month but is back in training at their camp in Austria.
Portuguese forward Diogo Jota has already been ruled out of Liverpool’s Community Shield clash with Premier League champions Manchester City on July 30 due to a muscle injury, but Klopp was more optimistic about Alisson.
‘Obviously Diogo is not here, that’s clear. But from the boys who are injured but are here, Ali is the closest — definitely not for Salzburg, but we will see. He is close to get back I think,’ Klopp said.
Boss Klopp revealed that several members of his squad had niggles and they’ll have to see who can feature on Wednesday evening.
‘This afternoon is an important session as well. In this moment I don’t know who can take part in it,’ the German added.
‘We need to have a look and we’ll play the game. It’s pre-season so we have to get through it and then we have to deal with it.’
Klopp has also revealed that none of his players will play 90 minutes against Salzburg, with the aim to push them through a full match in Saturday’s meeting with City instead.
‘This pre-season we had to do slightly different and we wanted to do as well,’ he continued.
‘All of them will play the first time 90 minutes on Saturday, all of them. But that’s how we did the training.
‘So the training sessions were intense to a specific point, that we could get fitter and fitter. The running sessions were extremely hard but we took care of them and now let’s see how we can grow in this season.
‘For City, it’s not really different, they came back from America probably yesterday or something like that. So it will be a tough one.’
Goalkeeper Alisson Becker is yet to return to full training and the Reds will be hoping he can fast track his recovery as they look to pick up their first piece of silverware, as the new season begins on Saturday.
They’ll face a tough task in their quest for the first trophy of the season as they come up against the Citizens at the King Power.