Football
ESPN staff 8y

Divock Origi injury 'serious' but may not end his season - Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says Divock Origi's injury is "serious," though he declined to rule the striker out for the remainder of the season.

Origi left Liverpool's win over Everton on Wednesday on a stretcher following a strong challenge from Ramiro Funes Mori, who received a red card and later apologised for the incident.

Liverpool have five Premier League games remaining as well as the Europa League semifinals against Villarreal, and Klopp said he and Liverpool still hope to have the Belgium international return before the summer.

Asked how long Origi would be out of action, Klopp said, "I don't want to really answer on this question, but I can of course -- it's an injury and it's serious.

"We will try everything, everything, [to make sure] the season is not over without taking any risks for the player. That's how it is.

"I am long enough in this business to know we are all different, all individuals, so we don't have to say any general things. We only have to work with him and then we will see what happens. It is the same with Emre Can and so on.

"As I said, we are all individuals. A long time ago, I had an ACL [injury] and played after four months, and nobody could believe it worked but I didn't have a problem with it.

"Why should we say now his season is over when we still believe a little bit there can be a few games for him? We have to see."

There was some good news on the injury front as Klopp said Christian Benteke will soon return to full training after missing more than a month of games.

"The good news is Christian feels good," Klopp said. "He hasn't trained with the team until now but he wants to. It's always the same and I understand your point of view when you say he is back and let him play, but it doesn't work like this even when the player wants it.

"If we have to then we have to, but hopefully we can give him a few more days. I haven't made the line-up for tomorrow and I haven't made the squad, but hopefully we can give him a few more sessions.

"After this game, there will still hopefully be seven to go and there's enough time, and it would be great if he could be ready. Sometimes when one door closes, another opens.

"It's how I said, he's had no team training and that's for sure what he needs before he should play and especially before he should start."

Liverpool's first test without Origi comes against Newcastle on Saturday in Rafa Benitez's return to Anfield.

Klopp encouraged fans to give a warm ovation to the opposing manager, who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005, and said facing a team battling against relegation will be a challenge.

"We know about the strengths of Newcastle, especially the physical strength of Newcastle but not only that," he said. "You need to be fit in this game, there is no doubt about it.

"We saw the Man City game [a 1-1 draw on Tuesday]. When you see Man City playing, you usually see how dominant they are, what a football-playing side they are -- but I couldn't see too much of it in this game because Newcastle were really aggressive, they were really hot and greedy in this game.

"That's what we need to know about this game. They fight for the league and you have to accept this fight and fight back."

And Klopp said the looming shadow of the Europa League -- Liverpool's best hope of qualifying for next season's Champions League -- will not affect his lineup against Newcastle.

"We've never done this," he said. "After the game tomorrow we have something like six days -- that is nearly a normal week, so we don't have to think about the Villarreal game. We shouldn't.

"We have to only think about our own situation. Who is available after Everton again? Who should be available? Who can rest?"

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