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Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on December 29, 2023 in Kirkby, England. | Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
In terms of personnel, Liverpool are set to emerge from the holiday pileup straight into the Africas and Asian Cup of Nations
Per Liverpool head coach Jürgen Klopp, there’s a possibility for Alexis Mac Allister’s return on Monday in the match against Newcastle. Mac Allister was unexpectedly sidelined for an extended period following a nasty injury against Sheffield United at the beginning of this month.
Though the Argentine has not been cleared to play, he will be assessed over coming days, with Klopp unwilling and/or unable to provide any certainty:
“Macca, we will see what he can do today — if he can step into team training or not. The decision is not done yet, it’s pretty early and the doc is not here; or maybe he is here but I didn’t see him yet. So, we will see.”
Andy Robertson will remain sidelined for all of January at least, with mobility not yet back in his shoulder according to the boss:
“Robbo still needs more range in his shoulder. Obviously it was a big surgery. [He is] still not even close to team training or whatever.
“Can do a lot, everything without using the arm properly, which is obviously good but on the other side shows us we still have a long way to go. For sure, I think, the full January he has to get closer and closer.”
Uncertainty remains for Thiago and Stefan Bajčetić, with the club treating the latter with caution due to his youth:
“I am actually not 100 per cent sure.
“I think Thiago will be at one point in team training. With Stefan, if you ask Stefan how he feels, he says ‘good’. ‘Could you train?’ Yes, he could. It’s just we have to be sensible. That’s how it is.
“It’s a growing issue, it’s not growing [increasing] but because of his growing, his age and stuff like this. So we just have to be careful. He could train today fully and then maybe tomorrow as well and then not [for] five weeks. It’s a medical decision, it’s not by the boy, it’s not by me.
“It’s just that’s how you have to do it if something like this happens. And that makes it so annoying for the boy.
“Thiago is in a very good moment as well but we just have to make sure we don’t use him then too early. The hip thing in and around that area is just a long-term thing as well.
“There were for sure days where he could have easily trained but it’s all about how can he be back then in the long term, and that’s what we are working on.”
Kostas Tsimikas, whose collarbone injury is fresh, remains sidelined.
