Roberto Firmino Fit and in Contention to Face Newcastle United

With the holiday fixture list ramping up, Liverpool are back in mid-week Premier League action under the lights on Thursday when Newcastle United visit Anfield. The Reds will be looking to keep pace in the title race—while Newcastle are stuck in the relegation zone.

Liverpool will also have at least one of their injured players back in contention, with manager Jürgen Klopp confirming Roberto Firmino and Curtis Jones are back in full training with their teammates this week, with Firmino in particular likely to be ready for Newcastle.

“Bobby trained completely normal yesterday so I would say he’s in contention,” Klopp noted. “Curtis had the first session with the team so he’s not far off. We all know it’s a busy period, we need the full squad and getting two players back is obviously good news.”

It’s not all good news, though, as Divock Origi continues to be sidelined with a knock. Meanwhile, long-term absentees Joe Gomez and Harvey Elliott both continue to work on their recoveries and will hope to be involved to varying degrees in the coming weeks.

Gomez in particular has been a topic of conversation for those covering the club in recent weeks, with the defender’s minutes highly limited this season. Klopp, though, insists that he has faith in the player and that both he and Gomez are focused on longer term goals.

“It was obviously not the best year for Joe with the injury and coming back and having another,” he added “That’s how it can go when you start playing again after a long-term [injury] then you play and then the body is not ready. We are patient and Joe is as well.

“That’s the situation. I don’t have plans to send anybody on loan in the winter, so let me say it like this, nobody came to me and asked if they could go somewhere. Joe is now only back for a week or so, but he still needs time to train to get to where he was before.”