Liverpool are getting a nice fitness boost for the run in as defender Joe Gomez has returned to training, and midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is set to return next week. The Reds are getting healthier and healthier at the right time, as they look to secure their first league title since 1990.
Gomez, who has been out of action since fracturing his leg at Burnley way back on December 5, could actually be in contention for Sunday, when Liverpool hosts Tottenham Hotspur in the weekend’s biggest headliner fixture.
As for the Ox, he has not featured since the UEFA Champions League semifinal tie last season versus AS Roma, and he had originally been ruled out for all of this season.
However, it looks like we’re going to see him on the pitch sooner rather than later.
First off though Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has cleared Gomez.
“It is nice – Joe is not injured anymore and nearly fit,” the German told the club’s official website.
“He will not be in the afternoon training session because he has to do something else – he has to work on his endurance, that’s how it is and how the boys always have to do it, like Ox had to do it when he was finally back in training.
“After a long time, I think Joe was out for 15 weeks, that is long, so he needs to now create the basis again for the rest of the season.”
During his 40 minutes of playing time for Liverpool’s U23s at Derby County on March 8 Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered a minor muscular injury, but Klopp maintains it’s not a big deal.
“I spoke to him a second ago; Ox is positive, we are all positive. It was a little setback, it was not more, but it was a setback. That’s how it is,” Klopp said of Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“You don’t want to be overly sensitive after a period like this because they train a lot – training is always like this, it’s like stress for the body. You feel something, but you don’t want to mention everything because it [can be] DOMS [delayed onset muscle soreness].”
“It was the case with him, it was a little bit more than DOMS, but not really [serious]. We are careful of course, he is working, he is doing a lot and I think will be in training in a week again.”
“Then he will be fine.”
Liverpool currently lead Manchester City at the top of the table by two points, but the Citizens have a game in hand. The Reds have seven games left, and with it a potential to acquire 21 points.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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