Jurgen Klopp has expressed his delight at Mohamed Salah’s inclusion in Liverpool’s squad for the trip to Prague, describing it as ‘so good.’
However, Klopp also emphasised the importance of assessing the forward’s capacity for playing time.
Salah, part of the 23-man Reds squad, travelled to Czechia this afternoon for the Europa League last-16 tie against Sparta Prague on Thursday night.
The Egyptian had been sidelined for the club’s last four matches due to an issue sustained in the 4-1 victory at Brentford last month.
“Yeah, Mo travelled. He is with us, he trained two days, so full of energy. We have to see,” Klopp said of Salah’s availability at his pre-match press conference.
“But it is so good that he is back, that is really good for us and you can see in his face he is very happy. A very unlucky situation with being that long out and in for a moment, if you want, at Brentford, played an incredible game there and was out again. That’s how it is.
“We want to be careful, we have to be careful, but in the middle of a super-intense period of the season we need everybody and now let’s see how long we can use him.
“That’s how it is with him and with others as well. Yeah, just good news.”
When discussing the potential for Salah to join the Egyptian national team during the upcoming international break, Klopp added: “That is nothing to do [with me] really. That will be decided in different departments. No, nothing to do with that.
“Let’s see how long he can play now. As I said, two days in team training – so, in a different situation players are not in the squad in this moment, but in our situation it makes sense.
“What can we give him? How much can we use him? We will see that.
“And then there are two games with Egypt, but it’s really not up to me or stuff like this, we are not really involved. That is discussed in other departments, let me say it like that.”
Meanwhile, Dominik Szoboszlai marked his comeback from a hamstring issue with a 76th-minute appearance in the 1-0 victory at Nottingham Forest last Saturday.
When asked about the midfielder’s readiness for extended playing time in the upcoming 5:45 pm GMT kick-off against Czech champions Sparta, Klopp said: “It is good that he is back. He loves playing football. Being injured is for him tough, tough, tough.
“It was not an injury where it was painful every day or whatever, he was just not allowed to train properly, how it is with muscle injuries.
“So, that’s the reason why we had to be careful in his rehab, because if you would have asked Dom, he could have trained completely with the team for two or three weeks, but all the medical advice told us no, we have to wait. And that’s what we did.
“Now he is back, played a few minutes, is in the squad. All the rest, we will see.”
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