Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is managing a calf problem as he continues his pre-season preparations.
The 25-year-old was limited to just two brief appearances last season as he continued his recovery from a serious knee injury that he suffered the previous campaign.
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In turn, he would have been hoping to get a full pre-season under his belt this summer in order to complete his rehabilitation and make himself available for the start of the new year.
However, while Klopp has praised the England international and insisted that he’s doing very well, he has also revealed that he’s battling a calf problem which is now limiting him from completing games as the intensity of matches appear to aggravate it.
“Two [starts] in a row with 60 minutes in both for Ox. That’s very important, very important,” he told the club’s site. “Today he was a bit unlucky. Ox has a bit of a calf problem, it’s not a tear or whatever, it’s just he has it from time to time when the intensity gets maybe a bit too high for him.
“Ox was really involved in the game, he was really good and then he felt that and he could not really be part of the game anymore. Apart from that, [it’s been] really important. So far, he could make pretty much all sessions, which is unbelievably important. Very positive things.”
It sounds promising to a degree that Oxlade-Chamberlain is making progress and is playing heavy minutes for the first time in over a year with the first-team, but ultimately that calf issue will be a headache moving forward until it completely clears up.
The last thing that Klopp, Liverpool and certainly the player need now is aggravate it and suffer a more serious setback to keep him sidelined for the start of the new campaign, given he has spent so much time out already in recent times.
Klopp confirms Ox-Chamberlain is managing a muscular issue. "He has bit of a calf problem, it’s not a tear, he has it from time to time [when] the intensity gets maybe a bit too high for him. So far, he could make pretty much all sessions, which is unbelievably important." #LFC
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) July 25, 2019
