‘Yes, he’s here’: Klopp confirms Liverpool player is back and ‘ready to play’ against Ajax

Add as preferred source on Google

Ibrahima Konaté is ‘ready to play’ against Ajax, says Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool can count on the Frenchman once again.

Liverpool will have Ibrahima Konaté back to play against Ajax tomorrow. Jurgen Klopp confirmed it in his press conference on Tuesday – the Frenchman is back.

Konaté has barely featured this season. He picked up an injury in Liverpool’s last pre-season friendly that kept him out for months, with a brief return a week ago.

Then another injury came and Konaté was once again on the sideline. Now he’s back again – but it doesn’t sound as though he’s anywhere near ready to start against Ajax.

“Yeah, he’s here and ready to play,” said Klopp. “Minutes, I would say. He could play the first minutes – but that makes not too much sense. So minutes, yes.”

Ibrahima Konaté ready to play against Ajax

It’s worth mentioning that Klopp mentioned a player ‘couldn’t play more than 20 minutes’ against Ajax and we suspect he means Konaté. The boss discussed Liverpool’s injury worries where the comment came up.

And so no one should expect the Frenchman to play a key role. At best, he’ll arrive as a late substitute, presumably for Joe Gomez at some stage. Though, this could also be a chance to shift Gomez to right-back and afford Trent Alexander-Arnold some rest.

But right there, you see the benefits of injuries clearing up. Options! Klopp had virtually none at the weekend, with a very limited squad that struggled to find patterns against Nottingham Forest.

Just having Konaté back, though, opens doors in defence. Still, an injury or two could seriously hurt Liverpool early on. They can’t have Gomez or Virgil van Dijk leaving the pitch and forcing Konaté on early. They also can’t really afford any issues in defence at all, with a presumed lack of full-backs for the game.