Diogo Jota is one of three players back ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Bournemouth on Saturday, though Arne Slot was unsure if they would be ready to travel.
Jota has been sidelined since his goalscoring cameo against Nottingham Forest in mid-January, picking up a muscle injury during that 1-1 draw.
That means the striker has missed the last four games, with Slot calling upon Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez in his absence – though the latter missed the 3-2 loss at PSV Eindhoven in midweek due to illness.
Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Bournemouth, the head coach was asked on the fitness of Jota, Nunez and Joe Gomez, who returned to training ahead of PSV but did not travel.
“All three of them are in training today,” he explained.
“So then the question is are they already far enough to join us towards Bournemouth. That’s something we have to wait and see today.
“Because we probably have already have more than 20 players available – we always have more than 20 available, but the ones that are mostly there.
“So we have to make the smartest decision for them, but also for winning the game tomorrow.”
With Jota, Nunez and Gomez all at least nearing availability, that could leave only Curtis Jones on the sidelines at present.
There was no update forthcoming with regards Jones, though it is worth noting that Slot was not asked directly about the midfielder and the matter may simply have slipped his mind.
Nine key players were left on Merseyside rather than travelling to Eindhoven for Wednesday’s defeat, which makes the starting lineup at Bournemouth rather straightforward.
Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz will all come back into the side.
Andy Robertson and Cody Gakpo, who were both brought off early into the second half against PSV, should be the only players retained.
