Naby Keita and Diogo Jota remain one final step away from staging a return to first-team football for the Merseysiders, said Jurgen Klopp ahead of Liverpool FC’s game away at Leicester City.
The pair have been missing from action since the backend of last year and as the title-race begins to look all but over for Klopp’s side, the German coach is in need of his star players to return to the fold at Anfield.
Klopp revealed that Keita is undergoing the final stages of his rehabilitation programme but the former RB Leipzig midfielder is yet to partake in team training sessions.
“It was a hamstring, a slightly bigger one,” Klopp said, as quoted by the club’s official website.
“He is back on the pitch but not with the team yet.
“He is in individual training sessions – hard training sessions. It is the final stages of his rehab, but [he is] still not there.”
As for Jota, the Portuguese international who had displayed a brilliant streak of form in front of the goal since joining the Reds last summer, Klopp added that his return date was further away when compared to Keita’s, with the former still not bearing the same intensity following a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to a knee issue.
“Diogo is close, but not as close as Naby, for example.
“He is on the pitch as well, individual sessions, not the same intensity as you can imagine after a longer time. In rehab, you have to train really intensely before you can go back to team training.
“Diogo [will be] two or three weeks, maybe. Probably the medical department hits me now, but I think that’s kind of possible, back in full training and then we will see how long it takes.”
