Liverpool news: Jurgen Klopp says Virgil van Dijk is ‘200 per cent’ fit, Naby Keita and Harvey Elliott are ‘fine’
Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk told Jurgen Klopp he is „200 per cent“ fit despite an ankle injury scare while on international duty with the Netherlands.
The Dutch captain looked in pain as he limped off the pitch in the latter stages of his country’s 6-1 World Cup qualifying win over Turkey on Tuesday night
after a high challenge from Halil Dervisoglu, the Brentford forward on loan at Galatasaray.
Following the game, the 30-year-old played down the concerns as he told local media he was „already over“ the injury, and Klopp insists the incident has not hampered Van Dijk’s fitness in the slightest.
„With Virgil, that was obviously a scary moment, you can imagine,“ Klopp told Liverpool’s club website.
„I sent him a message after the game, ‘Are you alright?’ ‘Yes’. ‘100 per cent?’ ‘200 per cent’. ‘Come on, send me a video of you without limping…’ ‘I’m only limping off’.
„So he called me from the bus and said, ‘Boss, I’m fine!’ I said, ‘Why are you limping then?’ He said, ‘My wife asked the same!’ So, yeah, that was a bit of a tricky moment but apart from that, no, all fine [for the other international players].“
Klopp confirmed Naby Keita is back in Liverpool after the midfielder was caught up in an attempted military coup in his native Guinea as he was on international duty.
On Sunday, an elite national army unit claimed to have overthrown Guinean president Alpha Conde and proceeded to close all land and air borders, prompting fears about how Keita and his team-mates would return home.
„Naby is fine,“ said Klopp. „Yesterday he was not here [at the club’s Kirkby training base] but he was in Liverpool again. I will have a chat with him today [Thursday], but from what I know from all the calls and talks we had, he’s fine.“
Klopp also said midfielder Harvey Elliott is available for Liverpool’s match at Leeds on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, after he withdrew from the England U21 squad earlier in the week, but Roberto Firmino is absent with the injury which forced him off in the first half of the draw with Chelsea.
There remains uncertainty over the availability of Firmino’s compatriots Alisson and Fabinho for the match at Elland Road, however.
Liverpool believe FIFA has no basis with which to ban Premier League clubs from selecting South American players who were refused permission to go on international duty this weekend.
On Wednesday it was revealed that FIFA had invoked Article 5 to block Premier League clubs from selecting Brazilian players who they had refused to release for the latest round of international fixtures.
FIFA applied Article 5 to enforce the restriction period of September 10-14 at the request of the Brazilian Football Association, which would see the players miss this weekend’s round of Premier League fixtures and also Tuesday’s Champions League matches.
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