Jurgen Klopp has conceded Diogo Jota will likely miss the Community Shield final for Liverpool, while Alisson “should be fit” to face Manchester City.
Jota sat out Tuesday’s pre-season opener in Bangkok, a 4-0 loss to Manchester United, before Alisson joined the striker on the injured list ahead of the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace Friday.
Klopp had previously hinted he was concerned about a recurrence of Jota’s hamstring problems, with the striker initially aggravating the problem he suffered while moving to Portugal on international duty in June.
Following the victory over Palace in Singapore, where Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson were on target, Klopp gave an update on the injured duo.
“Ali I think has a chance for City and Diogo doesn’t,” Reds manager Klopp told reporters as he discussed the upcoming Community Shield on July 30.
“Ali, he feels a muscle, abs. It’s nothing serious but, again, we’re preparing for a full season. So he can train but just not like before, so he shouldn’t play on the No normal goalkeeper training but he has a pre-season, so as not to waste time.
“But yeah, those kinds of things happen. The boys have to travel and train a lot and you never know for sure.
“It’s just small things, nothing serious, but you have to be careful because the rest of the season is much longer than the start.”
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was another limp in the pre-season clash with Patrick Vieira’s side, and Klopp hopes the ‘top-class’ England international will soon recover from a muscle injury setback .
“Of course it’s very disappointing for us because Oxlade has been training very well all the time since the start of pre-season,” he added.
“It’s obviously happened with Ox in the past when it gets more intense and something can happen. Now it’s just a muscle issue and it’s okay. We’ve had worse situations so I’m sorry. agree with that.
“I don’t know exactly how long it will take, but he will come back and everything will be fine. He is obviously a top player and he can help us.”
As injury fears grow, Klopp’s attention has turned to the upcoming Qatar World Cup, with July effectively serving as the first pre-season before unselected players are forced to stay fit in November and december.
Klopp, a regular critic of the Nations League and the international football calendar, called this pre-season like no other as he lamented the lack of concern for the wellbeing of players.
“Normally our pre-season is always the basis for the rest of the season, this time we have the first part of the season which is interrupted,” he continued.
“We are already a bit used to it because with the pandemic we had breaks and we started again.
“So it’s not completely new to us anymore and when these players have free time, for example, if they’re not at the World Cup, they never have real free time, they have a program of training to complete so as not to lose a lot in these periods, which is very important for us.
“That’s why we can give them at least as much free time as possible with their families and holidays and stuff like that, but they just need it.
“Other than that, the World Cup is pretty much the same for all the top football teams, especially in England, it’s the same because we play straight away.
“If you’re in the final or in third place [game] then you play again a week later – and then you play 26th, 31st, 2nd and stuff like that.
“Obviously the guys in the Premier League like the spectacular. I’ve said it often enough, no one really cares about the players in those moments, but that’s how it is.”
