Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita will not be included in Sunday’s match day squad to face top four rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
The 24-year-old, on a reported £120,000-per-week at the club [Source: Spotrac], is now being targeted for a return to action in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash with MK Dons.
Manager Jurgen Klopp has provided an update: “He is close but the match day squad is not yet the target,” he said, as per the Liverpool Echo. “It is a few sessions training with the team.
“We’d only put him in if we didn’t have enough players but I hope we will have enough players for the match day squad. Wednesday is the target I will say and then we will see.”
OPINION
You really don’t want to rush Keita back after the dispiriting summer he’s endured. It will have been tough for him to miss the climax of last season, and then he was selected for the Guinean African Cup of Nations squad when he wasn’t’t fully fit, leading to him aggravating his already-existing injury. He then returned in the Community Shield against Manchester City, playing very well, only to then suffer another setback, from which he has been out of action ever since. When you consider all of the above, you really don’t want to overdo his recovery from injury. The former RB Leipzig man will be hugely keen to show he has now adapted to English football and is ready to put an indifferent debut season at Anfield behind him, but Klopp needs to protect him from himself by ensuring he only comes back when he’s fully ready. That’s why Wednesday’s game against League One opposition is a much better spot for him to come back than Sunday’s clash with the Blues.
