Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Curtis Jones is ‘probably the closest’ to returning to first-team action.
The German dropped a five-player injury update that included some bad news for Brazilian midfielder Arthur Melo who suffered a muscle concern ahead of the Champions League clash with Rangers.
“Curtis Jones was in training yesterday, it looked good – but that’s now the first session. He’s then probably the closest,” the 55-year-old told reporters in his pre-match presser, as covered on the club’s official website.
“They’re in a good way, they do big sessions but Naby and Ox [are] still a little bit away.
“We have one new injury, it’s Arthur Melo. In the last session before the Rangers game, in a normal situation he just injured a muscle. We have to wait for further assessment to know exactly how long it will be but he’s out.
“Robbo is running a lot, looks like he’s close. Probably Curtis is now the closest, then Robbo and then the other two step by step.”
News that we’ll have our first-choice left-back potentially back in action after the tie with Arsenal will come as a welcome relief, though there’s certainly no hurry for the Scot amid Kostas Tsimikas’ positive performances in his stead.
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We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that our No.29’s latest setback isn’t a long-term issue, particularly given how key it is for the former Blaugrana star to show off his abilities in a short timeframe.
Nonetheless, the impending return of Jones represents a significant boost in light of our prior midfield struggles, most critically on the left-hand side of the midfield.
Of course, with Klopp having opted to switch to a 4-2-3-1 – a change we suspect he’ll stick to for the visit to North London – the burden on the midfield has been lessened somewhat already.