With Thiago Alcantara also returning from his injury setback, Liverpool look to have a strong squad at their disposal.
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Liverpool received massive injury boost after their manager Jurgen Klopp revealed that winger Luis Diaz is set for a return from a long injury layoff. A knee injury has kept the Colombian out of action since October. In recent weeks, the club received a lot of positive developments in relation to his return. The manager now feels that Diaz is ready for a return on Monday night away to Leeds United in the Premier League. With Thiago Alcantara also returning from his injury setback, Liverpool look to have a strong squad at their disposal.
Speaking about Luis Diaz, Jurgen Klopp was quoted as saying by the club’s website, “Yeah, he’s 100 per cent ready in training so that’s it now. He is now completely normal in training and now we have to reintegrate him. He will be in the squad, if nothing happens Luis will be in the squad and from there we go. That’s it. Yeah, absolutely it is [like having a new signing]. Luis, he developed massively. In that time his English is getting better, so he is really settled.”
“He was here every day – how it is with injured players and especially long-term injured players, they are even more at the training ground than all the others, so every day together with therapists and stuff like this. He really matured again, he is much more comfortable than he was in the beginning with everything in a new country, so that’s really good and it will help him as well. So, we are really happy to have him back.”
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Now, Klopp is looking to see how he can integrate him into the squad step by step. “He is like a breath of fresh air every day he is in training. He loves it out there, I said in the beginning when he came that he cannot train without a smile on his face and that’s something really special and that’s exactly how he acts now. But he was out for a long time, it was not his season so far,” he explained.
“Last week we played against Arsenal, the game before against Arsenal, the away game, was the game he got injured so a long time ago. Then one session in Dubai, out again, and now being back – it’s really a long time. But it’s absolutely fine – he didn’t lose his skills, that’s good, but how I said we have to see how step by step we can bring him back into the team.”
The Liverpool manager then spoke about the importance of Thiago Alcantara returning to first-team action following his recent injury trouble. “Super-important of course, Thiago as well – he was not out that long but it was long as well. It’s insane how quick time goes. It is a different situation [to Diaz], obviously,” he added.
“Thiago is a candidate for starting and if we start Luis probably people will tell me, ‘30 minutes’ and stuff like this and then we cannot start him [because] we have to make the first change a bit early. So, that’s different but no, [it’s] top – he can demand rhythm, how we all know, and when he is fresh he is a top, top, top player and that’s why we are really happy to have him back and in training so far it looks all good.”
