Jurgen Klopp is hopeful that Andy Robertson will return from injury in January.
The Scotland captain has been sidelined since October after dislocating his shoulder on international duty. In his absence, Kostas Tsimikas has stepped up at left-back for Liverpool.
Asked how far the left-back is from making a return at his pre-match press conference ahead of the Reds’ clash with Arsenal, Klopp confirmed that Robertson is making good progress but still has work to do before he can return to training.
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“I sat with yesterday with him and actually he’s doing well,” he said. “The problem a little bit is the shoulder. The shoulder is not there, the rest of the body is fine.
“We need to be patient a little bit, we need to be patient a little bit longer. But he’s fine.
“He can do all the physical work already, which annoys him quite a lot because he’s not allowed to do ball training. Little bit passing maybe, but not properly.
“But physically, when he is ready to go, allowed to go shoulder-wise, I think it is a short time until he will be back. We all hope it will be in January but I don’t know.”
Ryan Gravenberch will be fit to return against Arsenal after missing the midweek League Cup victory over West Ham, though Klopp confirmed that Alexis Mac Allister and Diogo Jota aren’t yet available. Meanwhile, he also reiterated his previous stance that Liverpool intend to replace Joel Matip internally rather than in the January transfer market after the Cameroonian suffered a season-ending ACL injury.
“Ryan (is back). Macca and Diogo getting closer and closer but not ready for tomorrow,” he said. “Long-term injuries are always a problem, of course with Joel’s long-term injury, it’s a problem.
“We have to sort it internally and we can, thankfully, because of the way the boy (Jarell Quansah) shows up.”