Jurgen Klopp says £16m Liverpool player will be back to face Burnley tomorrow

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Jurgen Klopp has given an update on the availability of his Liverpool squad for tomorrow’s game against Burnley.

The Reds have been hit by a couple of injury issues over the past few days, with Thiago Alcantara and Dominik Szoboszlai both now missing.

However, there has been a boost, with Wataru Endo returning from international duty with Japan. And asked during his pre-match press conference this afternoon if Endo would be ready to play, Klopp confirmed that that is the case.

“Endo is available, that’s good,” said the manager, before saying that the opposite is true of Thiago. “Besides that we have a few problems. Thiago is not cool. Everything looked fantastic in training, we showed quite a lot of things on LFCTV, you could see them, it looks outstanding.

“Let him play a few minutes and then… it’s a muscle issue. We don’t know the extent yet, we have to wait but it’s not cool and really not good news for him, for us and for everyone.

“Yes [he will play again this season], but we didn’t really think about that in the moment. We just want to get a full assessment done and knowing exactly where it came from. Normal procedure, that’s how it is. It’s not a big, big injury definitely not. But obviously something nobody needed.”

Endo back, but problems elsewhere

This is a real mixed update from Klopp. Of course, it’s great news to have Endo back in contention, but it really is disappointing about Thiago.

His return was just about the only positive Liverpool had to show from their trip to Arsenal at the weekend. That it’s now been taken away from them is a body blow.

However, Endo’s return will ease the pressure on Klopp’s midfield selection. Szoboszlai being out has meant that the boss needs to come up with something slightly different.

Picking Ryan Gravenberch at Arsenal didn’t really work, so it should be expected that Endo will be thrown straight back in tomorrow.

Burnley may be clear second favourites at Anfield on Saturday, but they’re a side who can play nice football if given the chance.

Liverpool’s £16m signing from Stuttgart could be needed to make sure they don’t get the opportunity to do that.

Before he left for the Asian Cup, Endo was excelling in every department as a defensive midfielder. Hopefully he can slot straight back in from where he left off.

The 31-year-old’s inclusion should also see Alexis Mac Allister play the more advanced role he was signed to do. That will be good news for Liverpool.

At the moment it feels a little like one in one out for the Reds in terms of availability. But players returning is always a good thing and it’ll be great to see Endo back out there.