Thiago Alcantara’s much-delayed return to the first-team fold at Anfield was played down by the Reds gaffer Jurgen Klopp ahead of his team’s visit to St. James’ Park on Wednesday.
The ex-Bayern Munich star midfielder has missed Liverpool FC’s last 16 games across all competitions since sustaining a major hamstring injury during October’s Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.
And with the build-up to Liverpool FC’s upcoming fixture against Steve Bruce’s Magpies, Jurgen Klopp admitted that the Spanish international playmaker is in line to feature in the midweek league game, with the German coach describing Thiago’s work to full fitness as ‘quite promising’.
“He has done parts of training so far. On Friday he trained a full session, but the session was a reduced session,” said the Liverpool FC boss, as quoted by the club’s official website.
“It is not about training one day with the team and then you can play in the Premier League again.
“It looks quite promising at the moment, but I cannot say more about it, I don’t know. We will see.”
Klopp’s men gave out a misfiring performance during the 1-1 stalemate at Anfield against West Brom over the weekend and the lack of creative options in the Merseysiders midfield screamed out loud for Thiago’s hastened return in the Liverpool FC colours.
The Spaniard was in fine form for his new club prior to the prolonged injury layoff, and his potential return to first-team action come Wednesday would hand a major boost to Liverpool FC’s chances of back-to-back top-flight titles.
