Jurgen Klopp has revealed there is a possibility James Milner could be involved in Liverpool’s season opener against Arsenal, but that Daniel Sturridge may need to have an extended pre-season.
The 30-year-old limped off in the 4-0 International Champions Cup victory against Barcelona, and exited Wembley on crutches. It was feared the midfielder, who has been used at left-back in the build-up to the 2016-17 campaign, would be sidelined for a few weeks.
However, Milner has only sustained a bruised heel, which is improving daily. “With Milly, it’s not too serious. When we saw him walking out of the stadium last Saturday on crutches, well Milly on crutches is something you just cannot bring together,” Klopp said at Melwood on Friday.
“In Germany we’d say he can usually walk with one leg under his arms! It’s a bruise in the heel, but on Sunday it was a little better, on Monday it was better and it has been better and better and better.
“Of course, when Milly says something is painful then you know it really is painful. We have to wait in this moment and wait to see when to test it. It is possible that he can be involved at the weekend, but I’m not sure.”
Sturridge, meanwhile, has a hip problem which has resulted in the striker having to sit out multiple training sessions. Klopp will now contemplate whether to lengthen the striker’s fitness schedule before exposing him to action.
“With Daniel, yesterday he had something like a ‘clearing session’ with his issues,” explained the Reds boss.
“He could be involved today in the team training, but he missed a lot of sessions in the pre-season and started later.
“We have to make a decision on what we do with him, if we use the next three, four, five days again [to work on his fitness].
“It’s how I said before, for a few players the pre-season will be longer than the start of the first Premier League game because they’ve had not enough time [to train]. And if you’ve not had enough time and missed a few sessions, then it makes sense to extend the pre-season for these players.
“Yesterday was good, so Sturridge can train 100% today, and after this, I will decide on what kind of training it will be.”
The German has also confirmed that Dejan Lovren and Marko Grujic are both fit and available.
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