Jurgen Klopp will be waiting by the phone if any of his Liverpool players pick up an injury while at the World Cup in Qatar.
Only seven Reds stars will link up with their countries for the tournament next week, a surprisingly low number which will give Klopp the chance to refresh the vast majority of his squad.
Skipper Jordan Henderson and right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold are in Gareth Southgate's England squad, goalkeeper Alisson and midfielder Fabinho are with Brazil, and Ibrahima Konate (France), Darwin Nunez (Uruguay) and Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands) will all represent their countries in the Middle East.
The likes of Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Luis Diaz (Colombia), Naby Keita (Guinea), Kostas Tsimikas (Greece) and Andy Robertson (Scotland) represent countries who didn't qualify for the tournament, while Roberto Firmino (Brazil), Thiago Alcantara (Spain) and Joe Gomez (England) missed out on selection, and Diogo Jota (Portugal) is injured.
Klopp will take those who aren't playing at the tournament to a warm weather training camp in Dubai during the World Cup, but will keep an eye out for contact from his Qatar stars.
![](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article28468857.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/0_Belgium-v-England-UEFA-Nations-league.jpg)
"We have seven at the World Cup, not a massive number, but important players," said Klopp before Saturday's home clash with Southampton.
"We have clear rules with international games: the boys have to text me if there are any issues. We need the players to tell us and that's the contact we'll have definitely. We're in Dubai around the corner."
The Reds will return to a Carabao Cup fourth round clash against rivals Manchester City on the week commencing December 19, which is one day after the World Cup final.
City have some 16 players at the World Cup, including five in the England squad, and both they and the Reds could be without some key players in their nations progress far in the tournament.
Speaking on Friday, Pep Guardiola joked that both he and Klopp could play in the game if there was a shortage of players.
"We are going to see how many players we have and the condition," he said.
"Then we will decide. It depends how they finish the time with the national teams.
![](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article28468871.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/0_Liverpool-FC-v-Manchester-City-Premier-League.jpg)
"He's [Klopp] going to play at left-back, I'm going to play holding midfielder. This is the strategy. I don't know how many players we or Liverpool have.
"Riyad [Mahrez] unfortunately doesn't go, Erling [Haaland], Sergio [Gomez], Rico [Lewis]. The rest go to the World Cup.
"If they go qualify and through the group stage, last 16, quarter-finals, it depends on that, then they have days off. Players for their own selections don't go through from the group stages, they will be able to play against Liverpool and Leeds [on December 28]..
"If they arrive at the latter stages, we will see which condition they come back. After the World Cup, we're here to train. Liverpool game, 'How many players we have? These ones, okay', we are going to play.