By the middle of February, Jurgen Klopp anticipates that the injured Liverpool four of Virgil van Dijk, Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino, and Arthur Melo will be able to return to team practice.
Jota hasn’t played since October because of a calf injury, Firmino hasn’t since the World Cup because of the same condition, and Van Dijk injured his hamstring against Brentford earlier this month.
Arthur, who had thigh surgery in October, has only played 13 minutes of football during his season-long loan from Juventus, but he’s also getting close to joining the team again.
Luis Diaz will require more time to heal from the knee surgery he received in December; the Colombian attacker is not anticipated to rejoin the team until March.
Luis takes longer, but Diogo, Bobby, and Virgil will begin training in a couple of weeks. After that, Klopp said, “we’ll have to see how swiftly it goes from there.”
When asked about Arthur’s development, he continued, “I would say quite well. He moves quickly. If everything is okay, it might take him two to three weeks before he can start team training.
But it has been looking fantastic for some time now. He needs a good build-up because it was a long injury.
Fabio Carvalho will miss Sunday’s FA Cup match at Brighton because of a minor muscle issue, according to Klopp.
Fabio has a small matter, but he won’t be prepared, he remarked. “Perhaps he can train today, but he won’t be fully recovered for the weekend. James Milner was absent from training for one day, but he is OK now. No damage
Centre-back Because of a severe cold, Nat Phillips missed training this week. Rhys Williams’ return from a loan stint at Blackpool has made it possible for Phillips to find a new home before the transfer deadline on Tuesday. Klopp added: “It depends on the offers. We need to be ready for everything. We’ll have to wait and see.