Captain Jordan Henderson is among the Liverpool players on the sidelines as the Reds prepare to host Swansea City at Anfield on Tuesday.
Liverpool will look to kick off the second half of the Premier League campaign on a winning note when they welcome Swansea City to Anfield in a Boxing Day clash. Ahead of the encounter, Jurgen Klopp has a fair few problems on his hands, with as many as six players unavailable.
Captain Jordan Henderson is the latest player on the Liverpool treatment table after he picked up a hamstring injury against Arsenal last weekend. In his absence, Philippe Coutinho might get another chance to don the armband, with club vice-captain James Milner the other choice, should he start.
Speaking on Henderson’s absence during his pre-match press conference, Klopp rued the timing of his injury, with Liverpool set to play three games in six days – a busy festive period.
Jordan Henderson has been ruled out of Liverpool’s Boxing Day clash with Swansea due to a hamstring injury: https://t.co/9QrXVGnSVY pic.twitter.com/c3PXkZRyEE
— Sky Sports PL (@SkySportsPL) December 25, 2017
“The problem is that Hendo will not feature for sure, he is out. That makes it even worse, the feeling of [the result at Arsenal], because so far we were really OK with this kind of injury and now it happened in the middle of the [busy] period, or whatever.”
Klopp though, was relieved to report that there were no other fresh injury concerns for Liverpool apart from Henderson. Alberto Moreno (ankle), Nathaniel Clyne (back), Marko Grujic (finger) and Adam Bogdan (ACL) are the other players on the sidelines, with Daniel Sturridge doubtful due to illness.
“[It’s] not too cool but I heard nobody else [is injured], a few knocks as it always is, but they should be OK again. That’s the situation.”
Meanwhile, Joel Matip is in contention to start on Tuesday, having returned to training last week after recovering from a groin injury. Klopp was also asked if he would make any rotations on Tuesday, specifically in goal, to which he replied, “We will see. I didn’t make decisions about line-ups now in this moment.”
Swansea caretaker manager Leon Britton too, has a number of fitness problems to deal with ahead of the trip to Liverpool. Wilfried Bony (hamstring) and Ki Sung-Yueng (calf) are certain absentees, while Leroy Fer (back), Kyle Naughton (groin) and Roque Mesa (knee) are facing a race against time to be fit for the game.
