Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Arthur’s recovery is looking “pretty good,” but revealed that Liverpool will be without Fabio Carvalho against Brighton.
Arthur has been sidelined since suffering a serious thigh injury in October, undergoing surgery on the problem sustained while building up fitness in training.
It was a miserable blow for the Brazilian, who has only clocked 13 minutes on the pitch for Liverpool since joining as a deadline-day loan signing from Juventus.
There have been few updates on Arthur’s recovery, either, with there a clear focus on those more regularly involved such as Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Virgil van Dijk.
But as Klopp spoke to reporters on Friday, he gave a rare update on his No. 29, who could be back in training in the near future.
“I would say pretty good. He’s running a lot,” he said.
“If everything is well I think two, three weeks maybe until he can join team training. But it looks good for a while already.
“It was now a long injury, so he needs a proper buildup. He was not a part of team training or whatever, not at all.”
However, while there was positivity around Arthur – along with Van Dijk, Jota and Roberto Firmino, who are now a “couple of weeks” away from rejoining training – there has been a new blow for Carvalho.
The youngster was not spotted at the AXA Training Centre on Wednesday along with James Milner and Nat Phillips, leading to speculation that he could miss the FA Cup clash at Brighton.
Klopp has now ruled Carvalho and Phillips out of the third-round decider, but confirmed Milner was fit and available.
“This week, Fabio Carvalho is obviously out. He has a little thing, but he will not be ready,” the manager explained.
“Maybe he can train today but will not be 100 percent ready for the weekend.
“Milly was not in training for one day, but he’s fine. It was no injury reason. Nat has a proper, proper cold.”
Though Klopp could make changes at the AMEX, he did hint that he could retain the midfield three of Stefan Bajcetic, Naby Keita and Thiago after back-to-back clean sheets.
It is almost certain, too, that Darwin Nunez returns to the starting lineup alongside Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah.
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