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Brazilian goalkeeper to miss much of rest of season, but Darwin Nunez and midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai set to return to face Forest
Liverpool are resigned to being without goalkeeper Alisson for a large proportion of the remainder of the season as Jurgen Klopp spoke of his relief that the club did not listen to “nonsense” bids for understudy Caoimhin Kelleher.
The Liverpool and Brazil No 1 will return before the conclusion of this campaign, but Klopp confirmed that is likely to be later rather than sooner because of a hamstring injury.
Saturday’s trip to Nottingham Forest will be the sixth consecutive game Liverpool have been without their first-choice keeper.
“There is no real timescale on it, but it is a proper muscle injury,” said Klopp. “It is not a short one. It is a rather serious one, but not a season-ending injury.”
Klopp reported more upbeat news on the health of striker Darwin Nunez and midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, who are expected to rejoin the squad at the City Ground.
In Alisson’s absence, Klopp is consoled by the form of Kelleher, whose performances have vindicated the manager and club’s tough stance in the last two transfer windows when they refused to cash in on valuations ridiculed as being well below the young Irishman’s worth.
Among those believed to be keen on the Irish international are Saturday’s opponents.
Kelleher was critical to Liverpool winning the Carabao Cup last weekend, and kept another clean sheet against Southampton in the 3-0 FA Cup fifth-round victory.
“For me there was no chance of him leaving, so I was not interested in who was asking,” said Klopp.
“It would have had to be a proper price to give us a chance of doing something in a difficult market.
“It is not like other goalkeepers moving from A to B for £15 million or £20 million. That is totally unrealistic and nonsense.”
Whether Kelleher’s ambitions will ever be entirely satisfied as a back-up to Alisson is another matter. So far he has started 17 games for Liverpool this season, with every chance that will extend to 30 appearances by May.
“It is completely normal that you have these discussions with players who are ready,” said Klopp of Kelleher’s long-term future.
“An outfield player in a situation like Caiomhin would never come and talk about these sorts of perspectives because they have 10 other positions. With a goalkeeper it is slightly different, but it never reached a point whereby it was, ‘you have to stay, shut up’. It was just the normal discussion about his future.
“The most important thing was we had to help him on the next step in his development by playing more games. I saw it the same way as what the player would say.
“I think now he would be pretty happy with the decision he made in the summer.”
Liverpool will still be without Mohamed Salah this weekend. However, the Egyptian is making good progress and could be back to face Sparta Prague in Thursday’s Europa League round of 16, or Manchester City next Sunday.
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