Liverpool are expected to be without Alexis Mac Allister for longer than they first expected following the injury the World Cup winner picked up against Sheffield United last week.
The midfielder tangled with Sheffield’s Vini de Souza in the second half of the clash and was brought off just before the hour mark. The Argentine star missed the Reds’ clash with Crystal Palace last Saturday and Klopp has confirmed that the 24-year-old will not be fit for the Man United match on Sunday.
Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s match with Union Saint-Gilloise in the Europa League on Thursday, the Liverpool manager said that he has never seen the injury of Mac Allister before and that it will take longer than first expected to heal.
“I am obviously not a doctor but they have explained it to me every single day why he is not ready yet and it’s a bit more tricky than we thought in the first moment,” the Liverpool boss said via the Liverpool Echo.
“So the other boy stepped on his knee and the stud, the thing under the boot, and it went through the muscle pretty much to the bone. So now we have to wait until the bone is healed and until Macca can deal with the pain.
“It’s pretty painful and actually Macca is a super tough guy but we have to make sure there is no infection and nothing happens and that is important. So it was a really…I’ve never had this injury with one of my players before.
“But now we have it and I hope it will not take that long to heal but I would like to say to it is day by day and it looks like he could be ready for the next game but they say he will not be ready for that as well, so I hope the next three or four days he makes big steps and we will see.”
This will be a blow to Klopp ahead of a huge game at the weekend as Mac Allister has been an ever-present in his starting 11. The Argentina star has played 18 games this season, contributing one goal and two assists from the defensive midfield position.
Klopp will likely use Ryan Gravenberch in his place on Saturday, following the performance of Wataru Endo against Crystal Palace, but the German coach won’t be too worried about Man United given the way the Manchester club are operating at present.