Jurgen Klopp has revealed Liverpool have doubts avoid the fitness of James Milner ahead of the Premier League encounter with Crystal Palace tomorrow.
Milner is recovering from a virus but his potential absence is the only concern the Kop chief has going into the clash with the Eagles at Selhurst Park.
Klopp said: “There are a few knocks, how it always is, but nothing else. Millie was ill on Tuesday, so there was no chance for him to train. Yesterday he had a running session to see how he felt, which was OK”.
“Now we have to see, we have another two days. I am not too sure, but at this moment apart from the knocks from the last game, that should be all.”
Meanwhile, Klopp says will not be surprised if Christian Benteke comes back to haunt Liverpool in the game. Liverpool paid £32million to sign the forward from Aston Villa in 2015 but then sold him a year later to Palace. Now Belgium striker Benteke will face the Reds for the first time since leaving Anfield.
He has hit three goals in seven games for Alan Pardew’s men and Klopp said: “When you have a player like Christian in your squad, of course we knew about his quality”.
“But every player needs the space to perform, to develop and to show things. For different reasons we couldn’t give him all the time he needed, you lose a little bit of confidence, you feel pressure”.
“We couldn’t change it and I thought, and I’m pretty sure Christian thinks the same, it made sense. He made the transfer so, for Crystal Palace, what a player”.
“We know it best because we had him all the time in training and in all moments he showed always his quality.”
Elsewhere, Liverpool fans are said to be desperate for Steven Gerrard’s wife Alex to have a baby boy — so he can emulate his father. Mrs Gerrard used social media to show a picture of her three daughters looking at an ultrasound scan as she announced she was pregnant.
She wrote: “We are all very excited for our new baby to arrive next year! Number 4.”
And one fan wrote on Twitter: “Just make it a boy — only person that can replace Gerrard is Gerrard himself.”