Klopp: Alisson injury is serious but not season ending

Jurgen Klopp has admitted that there is no time scale regarding a return to first team action for Alisson.

The Brazilian keeper last played for the Reds exactly a month ago in the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal.

He then missed the next game against Burnley with the flu before recovering from that and was set to play against Brentford on the 17th of February  before injuring his hamstring at the last training session.

From the moment he sustained that injury, Klopp indicated to say that it would not be a quick return from this setback, and speaking ahead of the fixture against Nottingham Forest, the manager went into a bit more detail as the Mirror reported.

“There is no real timescale on it, but it is a proper muscle injury. Different players recover differently. That is it pretty much. It is not a short one.

"It is not that he will be in contention for next week or something like that. We have to wait a few more weeks, definitely, for him. He is working in the gym, not on the pitch, it is a rather serious one but not a season-ending injury."

If there is a silver lining to losing the best goalkeeper in World Football, it means that it is giving an opportunity to Caoimhin Kelleher to get a number of games under his belt on a consistent basis.

The 25 year-old has made 17 appearances during this campaign which is already double the next highest amount of eight which came during the 2021/22 campaign.

There has often been speculation regarding the future of Kelleher and when he would decide the time is right for him to become a No 1 goalkeeper in his own right.

There is no question that he would be a major asset to most teams in the top flight with the latest example of that being in the past week with outstanding performances against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup win and again in midweek against Southampton in the FA Cup 5th round tie.

For a long time Klopp has spoken about the natural talent of Kelleher and has often said how lucky he is that the Irishman has decided to stick around as backup to Alisson.

And while there has been confirmed interest including today’s opponent Nottingham Forest, the German said the club was never interested in selling a valued asset.

“For me it was never a discussion, we spoke about it but for me there was no chance of him leaving so I was not interested in who was asking.

“It would have had to be 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 £15m or £20m, that is totally unrealistic and nonsense in how I understood.”

Klopp says that Kelleher is the consummate team man and has never agitated for a move.

“With a goalkeeper it is slightly different, but it never reached a point where we had a discussion whereby it was, ‘you have to stay, shut up.’

“You would have to ask him exactly what he thought, but I think now he would be pretty happy with the decision he made in the summer.”