Jurgen Klopp has admitted the injury sustained to Thiago Alcantara during the defeat to Arsenal is ‘not good news’ but is hopeful the Spaniard will play for Liverpool again before the end of the season.
The 32-year-old returned from a nine-month absence last weekend at the Emirates when he was introduced as a late substitute but Paul Joyce of The Times revealed yesterday that the former Bayern Munich man had picked up yet another injury.
With the Spain international’s current deal running until the end of the season there were concerns that the midfielder had played his last game in a red shirt.
Our German tactician was asked about our No. 6’s injury in his press conference earlier today, where he confirmed the ‘muscle issue’ is ‘not cool’ (as quoted by the ECHO’s Paul Gorst on X).
"Thiago is not cool. He showed a lot of things on LFCTV and looked outstanding, so we took him, let him play for a few minutes. It's a muscle issue, we don't know the extent yet but it's not cool. Not good news for him or us."https://t.co/b6D3gm2kWL
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) February 9, 2024
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The former Borussia Dortmund boss, who is vacating his role as Liverpool manager at the end of the season, continued: “Yes, we didn’t really think about that [whether he will play again this season]. We’re waiting for a full assessment. It’s not intensity, it’s different things. It’s not a big, big injury, but it’s something that nobody needed.”
Thiago’s injury is clearly serious enough to rule him out of tomorrow’s game but it appears that Klopp is hopeful that the former Bayern Munich man will play for the club again before the end of the current campaign.
He’s missed more than 100 games through illness and injury since moving to Merseyside in 2020 which is a real shame considering how talented a player he is.
The ex-Barcelona ace has the ability to control the game from the middle of the park with his outrageous passing ability and world-class awareness and if fit could play a huge role in our attempts to pick up a maximum of four trophies this term.
With Dominik Szoboszlai currently sidelined with a hamstring injury it would’ve been great to be able to call upon our No. 6.
Wataru Endo is back available, however, after returning from the Asian Cup and that’s a huge boost for Klopp’s side ahead of the visit of Burnley to Anfield.
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