Jurgen Klopp has revealed Liverpool were not prepared to take any risks on Ibrahima Konate for tonight's game versus West Ham United, though allayed fears over a serious injury for the defender.
Konate has gradually moved ahead of Joel Matip in the pecking order in central defence and the French international had started each of the Reds' previous eight Premier League games ahead of this evening's contest.
Joel Matip was chosen to fill in for the former RB Leipzig man, though Klopp has made clear Liverpool are unlikely to be without the 23-year-old for a lengthy period of time.
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Explaining the reasoning behind the absence of the towering defender, the Reds' boss told BT Sport: "Ibou had now in the last two, three weeks little niggles here and there. So, if it would have been the last game of the season, he would have been probably available. But we play now that many games we [don't] have to push anybody through it with the boys we have available. That's why I made that decision.
"Apart from that it's still early stages with a few things we do in a different way than before, so that makes sense that we keep similar line-ups if possible. But we need to make changes anyway in the next few weeks, for today we thought it would make sense to keep the rest."
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