Virgil van Dijk Set for First Team Return

Did your heart skip a beat or six when you heard that Virgil van Dijk, £75m million defensive messiah, was going to miss Sunday’s Manchester City clash with a hamstring injury — the infamous shit word of last season? Well, your fears may be — temporarily — allayed, as the Redes record signing is set to make his return to the matchday squad on the club’s upcoming trip to face Swansea in Wales.

After scoring the winner on his debut in the Reds’ FA Cup win over local archrivals Everton, the former Southampton man sat out the riveting 4-3 win over the league leaders the following week with a tight — not torn or strained — hamstring. While Dejan Lovren and Joël Matip did enough in his absence to limit the damage to three goals conceded, Jürgen Klopp will no doubt be delighted to have his star man back in contention.

Elsewhere, captain Jordan Henderson — having also missed time with a hamstring injury — is back in training, but having missed four weeks since limping off against Arsenal at Christmas, is still likely a few weeks away from being match ready.

Finally, Alberto Moreno has had a full week of training under his belt, and is in line to feature against Swansea, although to what extent remains unclear; partly because a substitute appearance makes the most sense following a six-week layoff, but also due to the growth Andrew Robertson has shown in the Spaniard’s absence. While fans will be delighted their manager will suffer a selection headache at the left back position for the first time in his tenure, the former Sevilla man will undoubtedly be frustrated that an injury has interrupted what looked like it would be his best season at the club thus far.