Dejan Lovren Returns to Training Ahead of Arsenal Match

Having missed the past three games with a knee injury that required a trip to Germany to visit a specialist, defender Dejan Lovren returned to training for the first time today, sparking hopes that the Croatian defender might be fit to face Arsenal on the weekend.

Those three games, though, represent a month on the sidelines for Lovren, and two days of training ahead of a match against Arsenal makes his inclusion on Saturday a considerable doubt. It also has to be wondered whether if he did play he would be in anything like match shape.

Match shape or not, many fans will be hoping he’s ready given how poor Liverpool’s defence looked on Monday against Leicester City, when Lucas was beaten for pace too often by Jamie Vardy and holding midfielder Emre Can was too often out of position.

Lovren wouldn’t solve all of those problems, especially with captain Jordan Henderson expected to be unavailable on the weekend, and many will remember that it hasn’t been that long since it was Lovren who was the man many blamed for the club’s defensive struggles.

Still, having two veteran defenders who have spent their career at the position and who at times looked to be building a promising partnership earlier in the year couldn’t, one would think, be any worse than the cobbled together partnerships of recent weeks.

How Lovren looks tomorrow in his second training session is likely to determine whether Jürgen Klopp considers him for selection in Saturday’s late afternoon kickoff.