Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino is an injury doubt for next week’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Barcelona.
The Brazil international missed last night’s 5-0 demolition of Huddersfield Town.
Speaking after the game, manager Jurgen Klopp confirmed that Firmino had suffered a slight muscle tear in training at Melwood. He admitted he was unsure whether the 27-year-old would be available for Wednesday night’s trip to Camp Nou.
Klopp indicated that Firmino’s nature made him confident that he would recover in time to face Barca.
But the German’s optimism will need to be back up by assessments from his medical team.
He told his post-match press conference yesterday evening: “Bobby trained yesterday completely normally, it was not high-intensity we just had to work on set-pieces a little bit and here and there a couple of things.
“I didn’t see it in training, it happened in the last situation of training and he felt a muscle a little bit.
“Now, the official diagnosis is he has a small tear in a small muscle, so apart from the word ‘tear’ everything else is positive.
“It is Bobby, so he might be ready for Wednesday, but we obviously don’t know in the moment. Because it is him, it’s rather likely that [he will be] than not, but we will see.
“So, of all the bad news you can get it is pretty much the best, but it’s still bad enough that he couldn’t play tonight.”
Daniel Sturridge led the line against Huddersfield in Firmino’s absence.
If Firmino is ruled out of the Barca match, Klopp is likely to choose either Sturridge or Divock Origi to play between Sadio Mane and Mo Salah.
You can hear Klopp discussing Firmino’s fitness in the video below.
