Liverpool will be without eight important players as they travel to the Etihad to face Manchester City in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup.
Four of those are due to injuries, with Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Arthur Melo all returning from long term injuries, whilst Curtis Jones is yet to return to full team training as he recovers from an injury.
The latter is expected to return to team training at some point next week but is expected to miss the games against Manchester City and Aston Villa on Boxing Day.
The other five players that will definitely be absent in the cup tie, is Alisson, Virgil Van Dijk, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson who all returned from the World Cup just recently and Ibou Konate who only played in the World Cup Final on Sunday.
Speaking in his press conference ahead of the game, Pep Ljinders claimed that the returning players will need to be given time to get back up to speed and be able to play at the same rhythm and intensity as the rest of the squad, who have been training over most of the international break.
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Darwin Nunez are the only World Cup participants expected to be involved for the Reds in tomorrow’s game as they have been back with the squad for more than a week now.
Naby Keita, Joel Matip and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are all back in full team training and are expected to be involved in the squad on Thursday.