Jurgen Klopp confirms when last World Cup player returns to Liverpool, 31-year-old ‘is back’

Add as preferred source on Google

Jurgen Klopp confirmed when Ibrahima Konaté returns from the World Cup. Virgil van Dijk is now back as of last night.

Jurgen Klopp confirmed last night that Virgil van Dijk ‘is back’ with Liverpool. With that, only one player is still to return to the Reds after the World Cup.

“Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was ill [and missed the Manchester City match], just like [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain was yesterday,” Klopp told Sky Sports. “Virgil is back with us now and [Ibrahima] Konaté will be back next week.”

And so by next week, Liverpool should have Konaté back and their full squad – long-term injuries aside. It’s a strong squad with which to attack January.

Ibrahima Konaté returns

It sounds like Konaté won’t be able to feature against Aston Villa on Boxing Day but we always doubted that would be the case. Liverpool gave every played one extra week’s rest after their World Cup ended, meaning Konaté’s break officially ends on Sunday.

There was a slim chance that he did return on Christmas and made the bench against Villa. That doesn’t appear to be the case, though, We imagine his real return will be Tuesday and Konaté can feature from then on.

And Liverpool will want him around. He was fantastic at the World Cup, shining for France whenever he featured. Konaté already had a decent reputation but now feels like undisputedly one of the world’s absolute best young defenders.

Before long, that reputation will grow again. He’s now proven at the highest level possible and Konaté should soon be outright one of the best centre-backs in the game – regardless of age.

So should he be first-choice alongside Van Dijk once he’s back? We think so. He’s delivering on a consistent basis for club and country now. It’s time to let him fully loose as the star he can be.