Three-and-a-half months on from a nasty ACL injury, Joel Matip took a major step in his recovery during training – as a big decision looms over his Liverpool future.
Matip was dealt a miserable blow in December as he was forced off the pitch midway through the second half of the 4-3 win over Fulham at Anfield.
The centre-back was making his 12th start of the season, but it would be his last as scans on his knee discovered damage to his ACL which required surgery.
But after increasing his workload in the gym in recent weeks, he was cleared to run around the pitches at the AXA Training Centre for the first time in over three months.
“Joel Matip is, today, running for the first time,” Jurgen Klopp told fans watching an open session on Wednesday.
“How many months? Three months? Crazy, absolutely crazy.”
There is still no sign that Matip will be fit to play a part in any of Liverpool’s games in the final two months of the season.
With his contract due to expire at the end of the campaign, he is facing the very real prospect that he has played his last game for the club.
That feeling was only magnified with the news of Klopp’s resignation, with the manager having previously suggested that he would push for a new deal for his No. 32.
Whether Klopp’s successor would look to retain Matip is obviously unclear, but there was at least good news for the 32-year-old this week.
Despite his injury problems, there would unlikely be a shortage of suitors if Liverpool opt against offering him a contract extension.
Matip has already been linked with a return to Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt, for example, though the credibility of those claims can be questioned.
The likelihood is that if his recovery overlaps with the end of his current terms, Liverpool would at least oversee the remainder of his rehabilitation after eight seasons on Merseyside.
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