Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool have got "a little bit lucky" with the two-week prognosis for Trent Alexander-Arnold's ankle injury.
The right-back has been ruled out for a fortnight after a collision with Gabriel Martinelli in the first half of Sunday's 3-2 defeat at Arsenal. Alexander-Arnold was withdrawn for Joe Gomez before the second half and will likely miss the next four games as a result, including Sunday's visit to Anfield from Manchester City.
Klopp also had to contend with issues for Luis Diaz and Joel Matip too in north London after they both picked up respective knee and calf problems at the Emirates and the Reds manager shone some light on the latest spate of fitness concerns ahead of a first-ever competitive trip to Rangers on Wednesday night.
READ MORE: Every word Jurgen Klopp said on Liverpool injury news, Jordan Henderson, team and Rangers preview
“Let me say it like this after the game in the dressing room it was already clear this would be the case [with three injuries]," Klopp said. "I thought we were hopefully a little bit lucky with Trent because the ankle didn’t look good, to be honest.
"Lucho (Diaz) looks like six to eight weeks, we will see. He looks like a quick healer but he will obviously have to recover with that. It could have been worse as well the way he moved after the game.
"Joel just felt a little bit [in his calf]. It's not great but it is the situation and we have to deal with it. Which we will. Andy Robertson only trained a couple of days. He is in the squad for tomorrow. Curtis Jones is not. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is not. Naby Keita is not. It is important the boys are coming back but it is not that you train twice with the team and ‘here we go’."
Klopp insisted he had no qualms with selecting Jordan Henderson at Rangers as Liverpool await the news of a potential FA investigation around the captain's flare-up with Gabriel Magalhaes against Arsenal on Sunday.
He added: "If you sleep on a problem, sometimes you realise life goes on. No, look, it's like this, you watch a game back and I was pretty sure it wasn't a penalty and it's not to open up the discussion again, and talk about [referee] Michael Oliver, not at all. It's just a fact.
"I already said it afterwards and all of you asked me about it and I hadn't seen it back properly. I just stood there and we'd lost the game and I know already, I am pretty sure, that we have three big injuries. How can I, in this moment, not feel downbeat? It's not possible.
"But then you get information [on the injuries] step by step and it's two or three weeks rather than my [fear of] eight weeks. The other [injury] is not too long as well and the other is out for as long as we expected. I get that information.
"And then by the way the 'TV ref' thinks it wasn't a penalty as well and he usually just thinks exactly what the referee has decided is right. But not in this case, they say: 'one was a handball and the other was not a penalty'.
"Then we get information that it was probably offside around the first goal and all of a sudden a bad defending situation becomes a good defending situation, it's just that the assistants didn't see it. So we checked it with VAR but there was no camera.
"We cannot be responsible for everything in life, we are responsible not for the good second half between the goals and we are responsible for the not good defending around the penalty situation but it was still not a goal. We are responsible for going up for a set-piece and conceding a counter-attack. So it is tricky. We didn't go to Arsenal to show how good we are, we went there to win the game and now we are close without all the decisions.
"Yes, the decisions are the decisions and I have accepted it for 40 years but whether it gives you a bad feeling or good feeling or whatever. If you are lucky with a ref's decision and you win a game I feel bad because I think we won't be that lucky twice. But not directly after the game, just if I see it back. This is the same, just the other way around.
"This is a tough situation but it is also a challenge. We always face challenges but we go for it and I am sorry to all our people that after last season we go again and it's not the case that we are competing for everything. I cannot promise that we will fly tomorrow but we will fight, definitely, until someone tells us the fight is over. It hasn't become easier since Sunday because of the injuries but the team I saw today in training I liked a lot. So let's give it a go."
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