Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Joe Gomez has made his long-awaited return to training, whilst revealing that Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Xherdan Shaqiri have all progressed considerably on their own comeback paths.
England international Gomez has been out of action for the Reds for three and a half months following a lower-leg fracture during the Premier League game against Burnley in December, but returned to training on Tuesday.
Despite admitting that the 21-year-old still had some work to do to get back to full fitness, Liverpool boss Klopp confirmed Gomez was close to returning to first-team action.
He told Liverpool's official club website: "It is nice – Joe is not injured anymore and nearly fit.
“He will not be in the afternoon training session because he has to do something else – he has to work on his endurance, that’s how it is and how the boys always have to do it, like Ox had to do it when he was finally back in training.
Training vibes pic.twitter.com/7gSZ1eHuA4
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) 27 March 2019
“After a long time, I think Joe was out for 15 weeks, that is long, so he needs to now create the basis again for the rest of the season.”
Meanwhile, former Arsenal star Oxlade-Chamberlain is also closing in on making a comeback before the end of the season, after only suffering a 'little setback' in Liverpool U23's clash against Derby on 8 March.
Klopp added: "I spoke to him a second ago; Ox is positive, we are all positive. It was a little setback, it was not more, but it was a setback. That’s how it is.
"We are careful of course, he is working, he is doing a lot and I think will be in training in a week again. Then he will be fine.”
In more positive news for the Reds ahead of a crucial run of games in both the Premier League and Champions League, Alexander-Arnold and Shaqiri were confirmed to be in the process of overcoming the injuries that kept them out of international duty last week.
The Reds manager revealed: "Trent still feels his back. We are not 100 per cent sure, so we have to watch him. Trent wants to [be] 100 per cent, but we have to see.
"Hopefully [between] tomorrow and Thursday he can be back in full training and then it should be fine.”
Klopp added: "Shaq, since a couple of weeks [ago], has had some problems with the groin. He trained, not how he could train, but was still in the squad and all that stuff because we didn’t have a lot of options. Now he feels better day by day and should be fine for the weekend."
Source : 90min