Liverpool have been handed an injury boost ahead of their game against Leeds United this weekend. Darwin Nunez returned to training in an open session ahead of the Reds trip to Ajax in the Champions League later this week, according to the Liverpool Echo.
However, there was no sign of midfielder Thiago in the session at Liverpool's Kirby training session, with the Spaniard recovering from a severe ear infection. The pair both missed Liverpool's defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday with Jurgen Klopp's side suffering from one of the upsets of the season.
Nunez tweaked his hamstring in the Red's 1-0 win over West Ham United but is in contention for the trop to Amsterdam. Defender Ibrahima Konate and midfielder Naby Keita also took part in full team training as they continued their own comebacks from injury.
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The French defender has missed the last three matches with a muscle injury, while the Guinean midfielder hasn’t featured since the Community Shield because of illness and a thigh injury. Klopp confirmed that Konate would only be out for a short time but the Reds are expected to tread more carefully with Keita and it's more likely he'll return against Leeds United.
The latter of the duo will not feature in the Champions League having been left out of their squad for the first half of the season. Joel Matip is unlikely to return before the World Cup while Luiz Diaz, Diogo Jota and Arthur Melo are all long-term absentees and won't be back until the New Year.
Klopp told the Liverpool Echo: "Darwin is good. He trained normally, yesterday and today, so yes, at this moment he is available. Thiago is still out. Konate is here, ready to play minutes I would say. He could play the first minutes but that doesn’t make too much sense. But minutes, yes. Nothing new yet. Matip is still not ready.
"For ‘clicking’ you need consistency in the line-up as well, and at the moment we cannot do that. Not at all. Could we sort problems, bigger, smaller? It starts with injuries, but then the players who have no injuries have to play too often and the players who come back from injuries have to play too early.
"And they come back and play, and they have another ‘thing’, and the medical department tells you they cannot play more than 20 minutes, they shouldn’t do this, shouldn’t do that, these kinds of things. And then you’ve got a Premier League game against a team with a knife in their teeth! That’s tricky.
"That situation is not sorted overnight. Yes players are coming back, but you ask me if Ibou is ready to play. He trained properly yesterday. He was not out long, but he had a muscle thing, so does it make sense to put him straight in for 95 minutes? Same with Naby, he needs to train. Oxlade-Chamberlain, needs to train.
"They are both not in the Champions League squad because everybody told me they would be out for longer, but now they are back, which is good, but not back to play, just to be around and play a few minutes."
Speaking ahead of the game against Ajax, Klopp added: ""But Curtis Jones is back, a few others are back which is helpful. No complaints, no moans, it’s just the situation. The situation before Nottingham was really strange, that you have to play a player who didn’t play for a long time with Curtis Jones, and he did really well, in a position he never played, because in the night something happens.
"That is difficult, and on top of that a lot of players didn’t play their best football in a game without any real patterns on the pitch, which is rare. Usually you have a few patterns, in this game we didn’t have a lot, against a deep-defending side which is not easy. I’m looking forward to the game tomorrow, I’m really positive, it’s the Champions League, Ajax, big names, big game, all good.
"We have a lot of players here so we will give it a try. We played really well a couple of times, but we didn’t get through those games without problems. We play a good game and then two players are out after it, and another is not available for longer than 20 minutes! Wow. That’s not easy with the squad we have.
"It’s not too small, just too many injuries. Now, we have enough players here, good news for all who are with us, and hopefully tomorrow that is still the case."
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