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Liverpoolvs.Brighton

sportsmole.co.uk, 29 March 2024, 14:33
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has delivered the latest on the Reds' injury victims ahead of Sunday's Premier League showdown with Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield.

The Merseyside giants return from the international break with a couple of mistakes to rectify from their last two domestic affairs, the most recent of which saw their FA Cup dreams extinguished in a 4-3 quarter-final loss to Manchester United.

By virtue of coming out on the wrong end of that seven-goal scoreline, Klopp will not be bidding farewell to the Kop with a quartet of honours, and the Reds are also playing catch-up in the Premier League title race.

Having only gleaned a point from their 1-1 draw with Manchester City in their last top-flight outing, Liverpool are second in the standings, one better off than the champions but behind Arsenal courtesy of an inferior goal difference.

However, at least one of Arsenal or Man City will drop points in their Easter Sunday Etihad blockbuster, prior to which Liverpool will jump to the summit if they draw with or beat Roberto De Zerbi's side in the 2pm slot.

Robertson "not as bad", Nunez available

The Reds were dealt a familiar blow over the international break, though, as Scotland left-back Andrew Robertson came off injured while representing his country, as he did during October with a shoulder injury.

This time around, the defender damaged his ankle during a friendly defeat to Northern Ireland, but following reports that he had avoided a serious injury, Klopp has confirmed the good news.

There are no guarantees that Robertson will be able to face the Seagulls, though, with Klopp saying: "Robbo, we take it a little bit day by day so we will see. He will not train today but it's not as bad. So that's fine."

On two brighter notes, Darwin Nunez - who pulled out of the Uruguay squad with a hamstring concern - is available, as is Ibrahima Konate, who was able to turn out for France over the international break.

"Ibou was an extra rest day [on Thursday], nothing else. [Nunez] is fine. He did his rehab during the week, trained the first day partially since we are back partially and since then he is in full training," the German added.

"Positive" progress on key trio

While Konate and Nunez are gearing up to play this weekend, a handful of Liverpool injury victims are still confined to the medical bay, including Diogo Jota, Alisson Becker and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Klopp told fans at the AXA Training Centre earlier this week that Alisson could be back in action in either two and half or three weeks time, and while he, Jota and Alexander-Arnold are making "positive" progress, they were not close to returning to team training this week.

"And the other boys, from next week on step by step I think they will join parts of team training and then team training, so we will see what we do with that," the German said.

"They are not too far away but not in yet, none of them was yet even close to team training. But they all make their steps and so it's positive."

Shin victim Curtis Jones is also touch and go for the weekend, but Joel Matip (knee), Ben Doak (knee), Stefan Bajcetic (calf) and Thiago Alcantara (muscle) are still out of contention.

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