Liverpool defender Nathaniel Clyne picked up a minor injury against Norwich on Saturday and is a doubt for our League Cup semi-final with Stoke City on Tuesday evening as a result.
Jurgen Klopp confirmed the news today during his press-conference, as reported by the Echo:
“Clyney got a knock on the knee. He’s a really tough boy, he’s always available but I think today he will not work in training. We will not do too much of course, but I think we should leave him out of training and then see what happens overnight.”
In better news though, Klopp claimed that Jon Flanagan is ready to come in at right-back in his place, although because of the amount of time the boyhood Red had spent on the sidelines prior to his return v Exeter, it’d be better if Clyne were ready.
“We have only Flanno, we all love Flanno but he had a long time (out) to play 90 minutes or more, maybe it’s not the best thing,” Klopp continued.
“We would like to try it – he is ready – but of course it would be better if Clyney would get fitter.”
This suggests then that Flanagan and not Connor Randall will start if Clyne doesn’t regain full fitness. With our defence at sixes and sevens, we don’t see this an issue at all, and think the defensively minded, feisty Flanagan – who never pulls out of a tackle – might actually inject some steel into it.
The manager also confirmed that Dejan Lovren is healthy again, but due to the Croatian only recently returning to training, he’ll likely stick with Mamadou Sakho and Kolo Toure at centre-back – while also bemoaning the fact Steven Caulker is cup-tied.
“Dejan has now been out three weeks. He trained yesterday and did a complete exercise session with the team,” he said.
“It was good but three weeks are three weeks, we have to see. If nothing happens with Kolo (Toure) and Mama (Sakho) in the next 24 hours I think they should do it again because Steven (Caulker) can’t play. That’s not too good, you buy players in January but you can’t use them in the cup, that’s nice.”