Liverpool journalist claims forward could return from injury on Sunday to be named on the bench | OneFootball

Liverpool journalist James Pearce has claimed that Portuguese international Diogo Jota could return to the bench on Sunday against Sheffield United in the Premier League.

According to James Pearce, of The Athletic, Jota has returned to full first-team training with Liverpool on Wednesday and is now in contention to feature against Chris Wilder’s side at the weekend.

The report claims that Jota’s involvement at the weekend depends on how he handles training over the coming days, having been out since the start of December with a knee injury.

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ANFIELD WATCH VERDICT

Liverpool have had far too many injury problems this season to start taking any unnecessary risks with Jota. Jurgen Klopp has seen so many of his players hobble off with injuries and end up missing weeks/months, with Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho just a few of the players who have suffered this campaign.

Klopp has Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino – fingers crossed – all available to play in the coming games, so he can afford to be extra careful with Jota. The forward has only just returned to training and, as Klopp will of course be well aware, putting instant pressure on his knee by playing him against Sheffield United, or Chelsea next week, may not be the best course of action.

Jota could benefit from a couple of weeks of full training before then being integrated back into the first-team to give him the best base of fitness to head into the games with. This could limit the chances of his injury reoccurring instantly, which would pile further injury woes onto Liverpool’s squad.