Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said he would be “careful” should Mohamed Salah return to action against Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday following the star striker’s recent injury lay-off. Egypt international Salah joined his Liverpool team-mates on Wednesday’s flight to Prague after missing the previous four games due to muscle fatigue.
The 31-year-old has played just 46 minutes for Liverpool since leaving the Africa Cup of Nations early when he sustained a hamstring injury in a group-stage game against Ghana in January.
Salah’s substitute appearance came against Brentford on February 17, the forward scoring at the Gtech Community Stadium before subsequently being sidelined with the muscle issue. He trained with the rest of the Liverpool squad on Wednesday and could feature in the last 16 first-leg meeting with Sparta.
Salah’s availability is significant for Klopp ahead of Sunday’s seismic showdown with Manchester City in the Premier League. Second-placed City will arrive at Anfield one point behind leaders Liverpool in a tense title race.
“It is so good that he (Salah) is back,” Klopp told a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
“Two days in team training: in a different situation players are not in the squad in this moment but now the situation makes sense.”
The German added: “We want to be careful, we have to be careful but we’re in the middle of a super-intense period of the season and we need everyone.
“So let’s see how long we can use him and these kinds of things.”
Quadruple-chasing Liverpool won the League Cup final against Chelsea without Salah, and also beat Luton, Southampton and Nottingham Forest in his absence. But having Salah back is a huge boost for Liverpool heading into the decisive final weeks of Klopp’s last season in charge.
The Egyptian has scored 19 goals in all competitions this season, including 15 in 21 league games. Klopp has taken his strongest available squad to Prague, with Darwin Nunez and Wataru Endo in contention to start after coming on as substitutes in last weekend’s win at Forest.
