Huge boost as 6 injury doubts train ahead of Liverpool vs. Porto

November 23, 2021
Joanna Durkan

The eve of Liverpool’s penultimate Champions League group game against Porto saw a welcome boost in numbers as six Reds eased lingering injury and illness concerns.

A 24-man squad were present at Kirkby on Tuesday in the early evening to put the finishing touches on their preparations for the visit of Porto.

A number of fitness clouds hovered over the squad following on from the win over Arsenal and with Jurgen Klopp having kept his cards close to his chest in his press conference, training offered a positive update.

James Milner, Andy Robertson, Neco Williams, Diogo Jota and Divock Origi were all present and in high spirits as the session started with the traditional Happy Birthday call for Caoimhin Kelleher.

The quintet were also joined by Jordan Henderson, who Klopp was coy about his chances of starting after his appearance off the bench against Arsenal.

The boss did hint at changes earlier in the day having said: “We have to think about ourselves and our schedule, and the situation of our players first.”

And with a needed boost to the injury list, he could now look to take the likes of Fabinho, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sadio Mane and one of Virgil van Dijk or Joel Matip out of the XI.

All trained as normal but it would give minutes to players such as Tyler Morton, Williams, Takumi Minamino, Origi and Ibrahima Konate.

It would, therefore, remain a strong enough side to ease those who look to question Klopp’s respect of the competition while also carefully managing his side ahead of the festive run.

Owen Beck, Conor Bradley and Kaide Gordon were also involved in the session, although the latter cannot be involved due to not being named on Liverpool’s List A and being ineligible for List B.