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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Mark Wakefield

Diaz recovers, Salah and Van Dijk injured - Liverpool's best and worse-case international break

There's still nine long days before Liverpool return to action.

The Reds are currently coming toward the end of the first week of the final international break of the season. It will be a longer break than most of their domestic rivals given the scheduled Premier League match at home to Fulham last weekend was postponed because of their opponents' involvement in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Jurgen Klopp's side's last outing was the Champions League 1-0 second-leg defeat at Real Madrid, who progressed to the last eight as convincing 6-2 winners. Since then, it's been all quiet.

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Indeed, attention has been focused on resting up ahead of the return to training, when preparations for the big trip to the Etihad Stadium to take on Manchester City on April 1 will truly begin.

But while some Reds players will be enjoying a brief break, others will be playing for their respective countries. And here the ECHO takes a look at the best and worst-case scenarios that Liverpool boss Klopp could face by the time his side get back to it...

Best case scenario for Liverpool

The best case scenario will be centred around the health of the squad; especially those that are already in the treatment room, but Klopp will also hope that those who are away on international duty return with no fresh injuries.

Thiago Alcantara, Luis Diaz, Calvin Ramsay and now Darwin Nunez all have fitness issues. Nunez is the most recent concern, after withdrawing from the Uruguay squad with a suspected ankle injury.

The best-case scenario for Nunez would be that he shrugs off the problem and is ready to feature against Man City.

Ramsay will not be back, after being ruled out of the remainder of the season with a knee injury. In the case of Thiago and Diaz, though, there is more hope. Diaz featured in light training last week and could make the step up to full training before the trip to Manchester.

With Thiago, Liverpool will hope that he steps up his recovery from the hip injury that has kept him sidelined since the start of February. The Spaniard recently posted a video showing him working in the gym, but it remains to be seen what condition he will be in by the time April 1 rolls around.

Worst case scenario for Liverpool

Once again, the worst-case scenario would involve injuries - but this time centred around those who are featuring for their national teams

Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands), Cody Gakpo (Netherlands), Ibrahima Konate (France), Andy Robertson (Scotland), Jordan Henderson (England), Naby Keita (Guinea), Kostas Tsimikas (Greece), Diogo Jota (Portugal), Caoimhin Keller (Republic of Ireland), Harvey Elliott (England U21) and Curtis Jones (England U21) are all on international duty.

The worst-case scenario would involve any of these players suffering an injury or knock of any kind before they return to Merseyside. The hope will be that doesn’t happen, of course, because given the fixture list awaiting Liverpool, any kind of injury at this stage of the season would present a big problem for Klopp.

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