Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah faces a race against the clock to be fit for tomorrow’s Merseyside derby against Everton. More importantly, is the concern about his fitness for Tuesday, when Liverpool travel to Manchester City for the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie with Manchester City.
The Reds won by a final score of 3-0 and that margin may have been even more lopsided, had Salah, the Reds’ leading scorer, not exited early in the 53′ due to pain and discomfort.
The Egyptian is doing absolutely everything he can to get fit in time for tomorrow; even utilizing an oxygen chamber. At his preview news conference today, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp discussed the injury/fitness situation, while remaining coy about actual information dissemination.
“First of all, I don’t think it makes sense when we start talking about what we do with the boys in rehab. There’s maybe another place where we have to talk about that,” the German said, “but, of course, you can imagine we tried everything to make him available. There’s still 23 hours to go until we start. Let’s see what happens.”
Klopp said he won’t play Salah just for the sake of the derby.
“I cannot make Mo available because it’s a derby. Even our supporters don’t want that,” Klopp continued.
“If he’s a doubt, then he will not be involved. That’s the same with all of them. If they are not 100 percent fit, they cannot be involved. I would not rest a player who has nothing wrong, we are used to playing games, that is not a problem.”
“The only way to work in this job is to be focused always on the next game, and that is Everton. Then after the game you have to see. I said before, the next game is never the reason for rotation; it is always the last game.
“If I think I have to do this or that, I will do it.”
SALAH RECEIVES TREATMENT ???
Mohamed Salah has spent time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber following his knock in Liverpool's Champions League victory over Manchester City. https://t.co/O9F6OhBN87 pic.twitter.com/6fzTqnlXbD
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 5, 2018
Klopp wouldn’t bottom line the chances of Salah playing or resting though. Instead he wanted to keep the information close to the vest, as to not give the rival Toffees any advanced tactical advantage. He then talked a bit without saying much of anything, and you can’t blame him for that.
“There’s not too much to say about it for two reasons. I don’t want to give any information away — that’s the first one — and the other one is because we want to wait a little bit. That’s all,” Klopp added.
“We have a few hours to go until we go to the hotel, we have a few more hours until the ref starts the game.”
“You will see who is available and who is not available when you see the lineup tomorrow because it’s not about rotation or something. We need to find solutions. But don’t want to give too much information away.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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