Jurgen Klopp is keeping his fingers crossed that he gets good news about the injury sustained by Philippe Coutinho in Liverpool’s 2-0 Premier League victory over Sunderland at Anfield.
Liverpool kept up their unbeaten run in the top flight to 11 games with the win over the Black Cats but could face a period without Coutinho who was taken off on a stretcher.
The Brazilian ace held his ankle after a tackle from Didier Ndong after 34 minutes in the triumph that keeps the Reds in second spot behind league leaders Chelsea. According to the guys at Tipsters Review, now would be a good time to take him out of your Fantasy Football team. Klopp was optimistic about Coutinho’s recovery though, although he admitted he won’t know how serious the injury is until Coutinho has a scan.
He said:
“We have to wait for the scan. What we know in this moment is it is something with the ankle and that’s it, so we all have to wait”.
“He had pain, but pain gets better. In the first moment, it was obviously very painful but when I saw him at half-time, he said the pain was much better. We have to wait”.
“If I have no idea what it is, how can I imagine how long it will be? I am actually quite an optimistic guy – so I hope he can train soon!”
Coutinho’s replacement Divock Origi found the net with what looked like a right-foot cross from the left side of the area to make it 1-0 after 75 minutes to calm a nervous home crowd.
And James Milner put the game beyond doubt with a penalty at the death when Ndong felled Sadio Mane in the area to make it 14 games unbeaten in all competitions for the Reds.
Origi was overjoyed to get some game time and doubly delighted to get on the scoresheet.
He said:
“The message from the start of the season was to keep patient and whenever the team needed me I had to be ready. I started this season with a lot of hunger and I just had to be patient”.
“Sometimes it can happen that you don’t play in the moment but I always believed in my qualities and so did the club, so did the supporters, so did the manager.”
Liverpool host Leeds United in the EFL Cup on Tuesday and Klopp may choose to rest Roberto Firmino, who suffered sustained a knock which led to his late substitution.
And Daniel Sturridge is likely to be absent for the encounter, too, after missing the win over David Moyes’ side.
Klopp explained:
“He had a tight calf. He hasn’t trained for two days and I have no idea when he is back. It is not sure that he can train tomorrow, so he was out because of this injury.”
