Sadio Mane looks set to return for Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Red Star Belgrade but Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita will miss the game against the Serbians.
Senegal international Mane suffered a hand injury while on international duty and underwent surgery to cure the problem last week.
Mane missed Liverpool’s 1-0 win at Huddersfield on Saturday but the forward, who has scored four goals for Liverpool this term, is in line to make a return to Jurgen Klopp’s starting line-up.
Speaking at his pre-match news conference, Liverpool boss Klopp said: “Sadio looked good in training in the last two days.
“He trained completely normal, so if nothing happens he is in contention. I learnt that word a second ago actually! So that’s good. We’ll see.”
Keita, who also suffered an injury while on international duty, was another absentee for Liverpool last weekend.
Skipper Henderson started the game but was withdrawn at half-time with a hamstring injury that looks set to keep him out of the Premier League match with Cardiff at the weekend.
Klopp said: “Naby will not be available, Hendo not as well. Naby is in a good way already. He’s outside running and all that stuff. So we’ll have to see. We take it now day by day. We cannot put any pressure on that, we have to see when he is fully fit. It should not be that long any more.
“Hendo got a little hamstring injury in the game and how I understood it is that it is not too serious but serious enough that he will not be available tomorrow and not at the weekend also. Then we will count the days. Hopefully he will be back for Arsenal but for the next two not available.”
Red Star visit Anfield following a heavy defeat away to Paris Saint-Germain in their last ChampionsLeague game.
But they earned a hard-fought draw with group leaders Napoli in their opening game, and Klopp expects the clash with RedStar to be a physical encounter.
“Serbian teams are always well organised. They are always like this,” the Liverpool boss said.
“They know how to defend and they are not bothered about being aggressive. That’s how it is, so we need to be ready for a really hard fight for each little square metre of space with all that we have.
“For that we need our crowd. We learnt last year that atmosphere can make the difference and that’s what we have to make sure of again.”
