Injury and Illness Ahead of Liverpool’s Trip to Swansea City

Liverpool’s upcoming match against Swansea City is undoubtably causing more fingernail biting than did the lead up to Manchester City’s visit to Anfield. Merseyside’s finest have in the past succumbed spectacularly to lower table opposition despite being in good form and with Swansea sat spectacularly at the very bottom of the Premier League table the chance grows ever higher that Liverpool will be exceptionally frustrating to watch at best, conceding the game by several goals at worst. I’m not crying the tears of a pessimist, you are.

There is heartening news from the front, however. Some of Liverpool’s fighters who have been sidelined with injury and illness are expected to be back in contention for the trip to Wales.

Mohamed Salah was ill this week and sat out training on Thursday. He is expected to travel, thank Fowler.

And Virgil van Dijk has shaken off the hamstring business that kept him out the victory over Manchester City.

“Virgil was back yesterday and completely fine,” confirmed Klopp. “We have a few problems with players feeling ill or unwell.

“Raggy was out but hopefully back today. Dejan was out. Mo Salah was out but hopefully back today.

“Mo and Raggy are on the good side of it already, but with Dejan we are not 100% sure.”

So, Joël Matip is the man most likely to partner Van Dijk at the back, along with one of Joe Gomez or Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right side of defense. And expect Andy Robertson to retain the left back position unless Jürgen Klopp decides to re-up James Milner’s membership in the defenders guild. Alberto Moreno isn’t quite ready for a return to the starting eleven but the manager sounds optimistic over the Spaniards healing powers.

“Alberto is back in training a few days longer and we have to see,” said Klopp. “Because it is Alberto, he trains all the time and feels it still a little bit.

“We will not put any rush on him but he will be back for sure after Swansea. Or even maybe Swansea, I’m not sure.

Klopp also stated that Jordan Henderson is similarly nearing a return to the squad, having mostly recovered from the hamstring injury he picked up in December’s match against Arsenal.

Such a full compliment of exceptional Liverpool footballers will be nice to see at the Liberty Stadium. Our collective anxiety will be high and our poor fingernails can only do so much.