Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Thiago Alcantara has sustained a fresh injury but denied it is one that will rule him out for the rest of the season.
Thiago made his return from a long-standing hip problem late on in the Reds’ 3-1 loss at Premier League title rivals Arsenal on Sunday.
However, despite only playing a handful of minutes in his first appearance of the season, the midfielder managed to pick up a new injury and is set for another spell on the sidelines.
At a press conference ahead of Saturday’s visit of Burnley, Klopp confirmed Thiago is heading back to the treatment table.
“Thiago, obviously, is not cool,” he began. “Everything looked absolutely fantastic in training. We showed quite a lot of things, I think, on LFCTV so you can see the training moments and it looks outstanding so you think, ‘Come on, take him, we have the opportunity, let him play a few minutes’ and then…
“It’s a muscle issue, we don’t know the extent yet. We have to wait there a little bit, but it’s not cool, of course. It was really not good news for him, for us, for everybody. On top of losing the game already and having that is not good.”
When asked if he expects Thiago to play again this season, Klopp replied: “Yes, but we didn’t really think about that, in the moment we just treat the injury and get a full assessment done and knowing exactly where it came from. It’s not the intensity and stuff like this, so there are different things.
“It’s just the normal procedure and it would not be a big story if he wouldn’t have been out for that long a time. That’s how it is. It’s not a big, big injury, definitely not, but it’s obviously something nobody needed.”
Thiago’s Liverpool contract is set to expire in the summer, so a season-ending injury would have effectively ended his Anfield career.
90min understands Saudi Pro League side Al Ettifaq, who are managed by Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, are weighing up moves for Thiago as well as defender Joel Matip, whose contract is also up at the end of the season.
