Liverpool FC will soon kick-off against Burnley (team news, starting XI, match preview at this link), but ahead of the match manager Jurgen Klopp gave an injury update on Virgil van Dijk. The all-world central defender, arguably the Reds best and most important player, is still rehabbing from knee surgery.
A nasty tackle from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford took him out earlier this season, and it is thought that he won’t return this term. However, it certainly sounds like the Dutchman is doing well in his rehab and might even be ahead of schedule at this point. Klopp didn’t get specific, but he did provide some insight.
“I don’t know what is possible and what is not possible,” the German said on Wednesday.
“I don’t think I’m the right person to judge that 100 percent. He looks really good. I spoke to him this morning, I had him on the phone – he is in a really good mood. So it’s all very promising. But I don’t know when he will be back.”
The reigning league champions, severely short-handed by injury for what feels like the whole season thus far, have now slipped to fourth in the league. While they obviously miss VVD, and Joe Gomez as well in the center of the back line, the biggest problem recently has been scoring, or lack thereof.
It’s not completely out of the question to say that Van Dijk could play again in 20/21.
“There are for sure a lot of stages still to go over or pass or whatever,” Klopp continued.
“That’s clear. I had this injury myself. But for the time we are in and for how long he is out now, how long the rehabilitation is going on, he looks really, really promising. But that’s all.”
After tonight’s league fixture at home versus Burnley, Liverpool will next take on arch-rival Manchester United, for the second time in a week, at Old Trafford on Sunday, in the fourth round of the FA Cup competition.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.