Arne Slot says Liverpool have been given some ‘positive’ injury news before playing Southampton

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Liverpool take on Southampton on Sunday with some injury questions surrounding a handful of players.

The Reds are sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League as they head to the South Coast.

Liverpool are heavy favourites to take three more points against Russell Martin’s team, who sit bottom of the table.

However, the Liverpool squad has been impacted by the recent international break as well as a number of fitness problems lingering over from before the national team games.

With Arne Slot speaking to the press on Friday, the question on everyone’s lips was exactly which players would be ready to play.

And while it was a mixed update in general, the Liverpool head coach did at least have some ‘positive’ news regarding Harvey Elliott.

Arne Slot issues ‘positive’ Harvey Elliott news

Elliott has had an incredibly frustrating start to life under Slot. The 21-year-old has made just one substitute appearance for the Dutchman so far.

However, Elliott looked to have returned to training over the international pause, with images from the Liverpool training ground showing him in action across the break.

And asked for an update on the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota, Federico Chiesa and indeed Elliott, Slot picked out the England U21 international as the one big positive.

“Virgil is all good, he’s training with us today,” began the 46-year-old.

READ MORE: The stage is set for Harvey Elliott to become a key player for Arne Slot by Christmas

“Trent isn’t training with us yet but he’s getting there so we expect him to be back with us soon.

“Harvey is training with us again, that’s the positive thing, he’s been out for many weeks but he’s back on the training ground again with the team, so that’s a positive thing for him.

“Jota is still apart from the group,” Slot added. “Same with Federico who is expected to come back into the session maybe in one exercise today [Friday]. So, they are all expected to be back within now and a few weeks but the last part of a recovery is always the most difficult, so let’s wait and see. But Virgil is completely okay.”

What about Alisson?

As well as providing an update on his outfield players, Slot also commented on whether he expected to have Alisson back available in goal for Sunday’s game.

But although Alisson has been spotted in training, Slot said that the 32-year-old is not ready to play just yet.

“He’s back in training with goalkeeper coach, not training with the team yet but that is expected to be done soon,” said the boss.

“Then let’s wait and see where he is in terms of match fitness. He’s getting better and better but not ready to play on Sunday.”

So, from Liverpool’s injured cohort, only Elliott is seemingly in contention for the Saints game. Let’s hope the others come along soon enough.