Burnley (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is relieved Sadio Mane’s freak training ground injury will not keep him out for long with the forward possibly in contention for Saturday’s trip to Burnley.
The Senegalese international, a £30 million ($40 million, 36 million euros) buy from Southampton, was taken to hospital after landing awkwardly on his shoulder in an accidental challenge on Wednesday morning.
Initial fears were that Mane, who scored on his debut in last week’s thrilling 4-3 win at Arsenal, had dislocated his shoulder and might require a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
But the problem proved to be nothing more serious than a muscle impact injury and Klopp has yet to rule him out of the game at Turf Moor.
“It was a challenge between two players in the air, and when coming down Sadio fell on his shoulder,” said Klopp.
“It’s not that serious. At the moment I have no idea if he could be available for the weekend or not but I don’t think it will take a long time.
“It would have been better without this situation but these things will happen and you can’t avoid this. At first it wasn’t too good but now all is okay.”
Klopp is likely to be further boosted for the game against the newly-promoted Lancashire club with James Milner and Daniel Sturridge available.
– Klopp defends Moreno –
Milner could step in at an unfamiliar left-back role although Klopp reacted angrily to criticism aimed at Alberto Moreno following his performance at Arsenal and his tackle which led to conceding a first-half penalty.
“Are we doing this every time someone’s performance isn’t very good then we talk about it in a press conference?” said Klopp.
“We spoke about how we can defend together differently because the situation occurred two times before the penalty situation and in my opinion we could have avoided this situation five or six times before.
“We came to the situation where Alberto could have done better, and that’s right, but I don’t really understand what we are talking about. I cannot be interested in criticism from other people.
“He played so there was a reason for it — that is what I think about and not what other people want me to think.”
Klopp’s opposite number Sean Dyche is likely to give a debut to the club’s record signing Belgian international midfielder Steven Defour, who joined from Anderlecht this week for £7.5 million.
“In the Premier League world, the numbers that get bandied around for us seem really small,” said Dyche.
“But for us, they are actually big for a club like Burnley. The rest of the Premier League are probably going ‘why aren’t they just getting on with those deals?’.
“For us it’s a big thing to spend millions of pounds. For others it’s just like ‘park that, let’s move on and get another one in’. That’s the vast difference in the market.
“Liverpool, for example, their cheapest player will be more expensive than our record signing. We know there are no guarantees. Leicester proved it last year.”
