Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has played down fears that striker Divock Origi picked up a serious injury during Wednesday's 2-0 win over West Ham United.
The Belgian appeared to pick up a knock shortly before the 70-minute mark and eventually had to be substituted off. With Sadio Mané also unavailable, there were concerns that a potential injury to Origi could leave them short of numbers in attack.
Speaking after the game (via the club's official website), Klopp insisted that Origi had simply suffered cramp and there was nothing to suggest he would need a period on the sidelines.
“Always when a player has to come off it’s a concern, especially when you play again three days later," Klopp said. “But he told me it was cramps and let’s hope that it is like this and then he should be ready again.”
Origi was named in the starting lineup to replace Mané, who is also expected to miss Saturday's meeting with Southampton with a muscle tear. With Xherdan Shaqiri sidelined as well, new signing Takumi Minamino appears to be Klopp's only other senior option, so the boss will certainly hope to see Origi recover as soon as possible.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were enough to steer Liverpool to a comfortable victory, but their performance did feature a number of defensive errors which the Reds were lucky to escape from.
It had been suggested that Liverpool would struggle with motivation, given they have such an imposing lead in the Premier League, but Klopp told Sky Sports that his players remain completely focused on the goal of winning the title.
"It's not a motivational problem for us," he said. "The difficulty was to get the rhythm, keep rhythm and to stay concentrated. I think their biggest chances we gave them.
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Source : 90min