Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is hopeful that Virgil van Dijk will be able to make his long-awaited comeback from injury in Thursday’s pre-season friendly against Hertha, while Joe Gomez could get back on the pitch for the first time when Athletic Club visit Anfield on 8 August.
Van Dijk and Gomez both missed most of last season because of long-term knee injuries suffered in the early weeks of the campaign. But each has been training well during the club’s pre-season camp in Austria and attention is increasingly focused on when they might get some game time.
Van Dijk, who was injured in mid-October, is slightly further along than Gomez and Klopp hopes to use the Dutch centre-back from the bench against Hertha.
“I hope, I am not sure, that there is the opportunity that Virgil could play a few minutes,” Klopp told LiverpoolFC.com ahead of this week’s friendly against the Bundesliga side.