Liverpool are again set to be without a minimum of 10 players when their Premier League season resumes at AFC Bournemouth on Sunday.
Thiago Alcantara, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Stefan Bajcetic, Ben Doak, Joel Matip, Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Kostas Tsimikas have all been sidelined through injury and Jürgen Klopp is not anticipating any returns at Vitality Stadium.
Wataru Endo and Mohamed Salah, who suffered a muscle strain this week, are also away at the Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations respectively.
“They are all positive but not ready,” the manager said of the players recovering on Merseyside, during Friday morning’s pre-match press conference.
“But they are all going in the right direction, getting closer and closer and closer. Some of them might be in kind of part of team training next week.
But for the Bournemouth game I don’t expect anybody back. I hope nobody [else] will be out until then.
“But after Bournemouth, maybe for Fulham, we will see how the boys do. But they are all close. Trent close, Dom close, Robbo close. All going in the right direction, that’s all positive, but for the weekend’s game, no.”
Luis Diaz could make his 50th Premier League appearance for Liverpool.
Bournemouth will be without Tyler Adams, Ryan Fredericks, Milos Kerkez, Dango Ouattara, Antoine Semenyo, Marcos Senesi and Adam Smith.
But Lloyd Kelly could return after a two-month lay-off.
Head coach Andoni Iraola told the media on Friday: “We have Adam Smith out still as he missed the game against QPR.
“On top of that, Milos Kerkez is still definitely out, while Ryan Fredericks and Tyler Adams are longer-term injuries.
“Lloyd Kelly is the only player who I would leave it open to, but he’s definitely not 100 per cent guaranteed to play. He’s the only one who has a slight chance of being in the squad.”
Semenyo and Ouattara are on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations but James Hill is available to Iraola after he returned to the south coast following a loan spell with Blackburn Rovers.
Last match
Queens Park Rangers 2-3 Bournemouth (January 6): Travers, Aarons, Mepham, Senesi, Tavernier, Scott, Cook, Brooks, Billing, Sinisterra, Moore.
Liverpool 2-1 Fulham (January 10): Kelleher, Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Gomez, Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Jones, Elliott, Jota, Diaz.
