Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Mohamed Salah could return for Wednesday’s Champions League clash against Genk.
The German revealed that there was no chance that the Reds’ star man would play against Manchester United as he hasn’t been able to train with the first-team in the build-up to the fixture.
Klopp was bewildered at suggestions that the Egyptian international could feature on Sunday, and couldn’t give a definitive answer regarding his chances of returning to full fitness before the game against the Belgian side.
“Mo was not ready, that’s how it is,” Klopp explained to Sky Sports before the game on Sunday.
“He couldn’t train with the team; I don’t know where it came from that everybody said he will play.
“There was pretty much no chance for today, maybe for Wednesday, we have to see.”
Divock Origi replaced Salah at Old Trafford, with Alisson Becker also coming into the side in place of Adrian.
OPINION
There is no hiding the fact that Salah is always a massive miss when he is sidelined for any reason. The only positive in this set back for the Egyptian is that he could possibly return for the game on Wednesday. It is interesting that Klopp hit back at the reports through the week, saying that he hadn’t trained with the side at all. There is always a lot of pressure on the shoulders of Origi when he comes in to replace any of the prolific front three at Anfield, but he will have had quite some time to prepare for the clash, given that Salah was never going to make it after the tackle by Leicester City’s Hamza Choudhary. Klopp will not want to lose Salah for any longer than the Manchester United clash, and resting him as well as possible may be the answer for that. Given Genk’s struggles in the Champions League, the Reds could get away with resting the winger once more to fully make sure that he is ready for the Premier League.
