Dominik Szoboszlai remains an injury doubt for Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Brentford on Saturday.
Szoboszlai started Liverpool’s first five games of the league season before missing last Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City at Anfield with a hamstring problem.
The Hungarian midfielder also missed Liverpool’s thumping Champions League victory in midweek against LASK.
Szoboszlai is one of several key players missing for Andoni Iraola, along with attacking duo Cody Gakpo and Alexander Isak.
And Iraola said he will have to ‘wait and see’ if any of the trio will recover in time to play a part against Brentford on Saturday.
‘It’s early for us to say, we have still tomorrow’s training,’ Iraola said on Thursday. ‘Obviously, they were not ready for last night [against LASK].
‘We have to wait and see. I think it’s still very early but the same way I said they are not available for the previous games, I leave the chance open this time, yes.’
Liverpool will definitely be without the suspended Ryan Gravenberch after his sending off against City, with Iraola hinting he will have to rotate ahead of a busy few weeks for his side.
‘In this period especially when we are basically playing every three days – almost less than three days – you need more players,’ he added. ‘That’s why we changed the team a little bit yesterday.
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‘We will need to change again at the weekend, we will need to change again when we face Villarreal in another three days.
‘We need everyone, we will need everyone in one moment or the other. Everyone has to be ready because we will need him probably.’
Elsewhere, Giovanni Leoni is inching closer to first-team training, but Iraola confirmed the Italian had faced additional hurdles after his serious ACL injury last season.
‘It’s taking more time than we wanted,’ he said. ‘With Leo, the plan was to train in the international break but it will be the next one, so we have lost one month of progress.
‘It was not just an ACL, it was a bad injury, a lot of areas around the knee. That process has to be very careful and we want to be careful when he returns to the team he stays in a good place.
‘So the plan now is he starts in the next break. Later than we expected.’
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