Injuries have improved for Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp ahead of the return of the Premier League, with the Reds scheduled to play Wolves at Molineux on Saturday.
Ibrahima Konate is back in the Liverpool team’s workouts, offering manager Jurgen Klopp a solution to this weekend’s additional defensive conundrum.
Prior to the international break, the Reds manager was down to only two senior center backs who were healthy, with Konate injured, Virgil van Dijk suspended, and Trent Alexander-Arnold unavailable due to a hamstring problem.
In the victory over Aston Villa that propelled Liverpool into third place in the Premier League, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip excelled in place of Liverpool’s preferred center defense partnership.
Konate was able to return to training this week after suffering a thigh injury in mid-August, giving the management the opportunity to employ Gomez at right back while Alexander-Arnold was out.
Next Thursday, when the English club’s Europa League campaign gets underway in Austria against LASK, he would be able to rejoin his top-choice duo of Van Dijk and Konate in Europe thanks to that.
Despite the fact that Thiago and Alexander-Arnold have yet to participate in the main training session and are reportedly on separate training regimens while they recover from injuries, this is still fantastic news for Klopp.
Alexander-Arnold missed was forced out of the England squad with a hamstring injury picked up in the win over Villa just before the international break, and Klopp will take no risks with such an injury.
Thiago was due to be back this week, but the manager will not push the midfielder, especially after new signing Ryan Gravenberch has completed a full fortnight of training with the Reds, after pulling out of Holland U21 duty to concentrate on settling in at Anfield.
Ibrahima Konate returned to training this week, having been out of action with a thigh injury
However, Gravenberch’s decision did cause some controversy, with Dutch boss Ronald Koeman and U21’s manager Michael Reiziger both criticising the midfielder for withdrawing from the squad.
“We are not happy with Ryan Gravenberch refusing to play for his country,” Koeman said earlier this month. “We don’t like it when players refuse to play for the U21 team.
“Nigel de Jong (the Dutch FA’s technical director) has spoken with Jeremie Frimpong about this.
He still wants to play for us, but we decided he will not be called up. You can see it as punishment.
I believe you are obliged to play for your country.”
Reizger said: “I hope Ryan Gravenberch will learn from this. It doesn’t mean he will just be called up again.
He needs to learn from this. Playing for your country is an honour, you want to be part of that. Plus the fame you can achieve with it.
“You battle for your country, you have the entire nation behind you. At your club you only have one part of the city behind you.
I don’t like Gravenberch’s choice. I have told him this. If you can join the National Team, you do this with your heart.
And you don’t start to think about yourself. But I want players who want to play with their heart for our country.”
