Injury Watch: Jota and Keita

Liverpool FC has been provided with an injury boost in the form of Jordan Henderson and Joel Matip being available for the game against Spurs. With those two back to shore up the defence and midfield situation, we can now turn our attention to two other players who could help when they return in February: Diogo Jota and Naby Keita.

Diogo Jota suffered a knee injury in early December, after playing 87 minutes in a meaningless 1-1 draw against Midtjylland.

About a week ago, Jurgen Klopp had this to say about Diogo:

“Diogo is a few weeks away. Will not be next one or two. He needs time. How much I miss him is not important. I am not allowed to miss him. He is not there and we deal with it.”

He was expected to be out for two months, so the timeline is almost due soon. He is now expected to be back in early February after having made good progress on his rehabilitation and will provide a much-needed spark, having scored 9 in 17 games before the injury, to a frontline that has looked super tired as of late.

As for Naby Keita, he hasn’t played since the 7-0 win at Crystal Palace on December 19. He picked up a muscle problem. He is expected to take things slow as the club wants him to fully recover from this issue instead of potentially further aggravating it. The Guinean midfielder looked to be over the injury bug this season - he had started the first four Premier League games of the season but has since been limited by a variety of injuries to just five more appearances in all competitions. The midfield could sure use his ball progression and dynamism in it, so here’s hoping that will be soon.