Joel Matip’s availability for Sunday’s matchup at Anfield against Manchester United would be subject to further assessment on the central defender’s fitness, asserted Jurgen Klopp ahead of the high-billed Premier League fixture.
The Cameroon international defender was forced off the pitch last month in the 1-1 draw against West Brom due to an abductor injury, with later reports confirming Matip’s expected absence in first-team action for a period of up to three weeks.
With Manchester United’s visit to Anfield coming to a crucial juncture for a misfiring Reds side, the inclusion of Matip in the starting eleven for the weekend fixture has become even more critical owing to Jurgen Klopp’s men lagging three points behind their arch-rivals in the Premier League standings.
In his pre-game interview, Klopp said a decision to take in Matip for the crunch top-flight game would be made only in the aftermath of him having made a return to training sessions prior to the Anfield showdown.
“Joel is close. Does it now make sense to throw him into a game with one or two sessions, which he didn’t do yet, but today and tomorrow he might be involved?
“To bring him [in], I don’t know. We have to see, we have to decide, we have to look at him and how he will train, how he looks in training and these kind of things, but we have still different solutions.
“Hendo is very important in midfield for us as well, so we just have to see. It’s not decided yet, why should I?”
