Jürgen Klopp on Divock Origi’s Injury at West Ham

The great thing about Divock Origi is that he very often makes a difference when Liverpool need him without ever having to build up match rhythm. He’ll get a goal or an assist. He’ll cause the opposing right back all sorts of problems, driving forward with clever footwork and speed. Against West Ham United, Origi’s most effective contribution was probably drawing the foul in the box that led to a penalty and Mohamed Salah scoring the opener.

Origi is behind Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané in the team and spends most games on the bench. He finds playing time here and there. Rotation provides him some minutes but Origi’s best bet to get onto the pitch is an injury layoff for one of the front three.

With Mané out with a small tear in his hamstring, Jürgen Klopp added Origi into the team at West Ham. Now with Southampton heading to Anfield on Saturday, the Belgian has an opportunity for some consecutive match action. But a forced substitution in the second half at the London Stadium may spell trouble for his chances.

Post-match the boss couldn’t say definitively if Origi’s issue was serious or not but there was a presumption that it shouldn’t be a prolonged problem.

“When players come off it’s always a concern, especially when you’re playing three days later,” Klopp. said.

“But as much as he told me, what he had was cramps.

“Let’s hope that it is like this and he will be ready again.”

From the sound of it Origi should be available for the weekend but two matches coming so quickly together might be asking too much from a player not used to being multi-match fit. Thankfully, Klopp also has new man, Takumi Minamino, as an option up top for Southampton. And maybe Xherdan Shaqiri. I’ve lost track of Shaqiri, to be honest.