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Captain Jordan Henderson will return for Liverpool against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday — but James Milner will miss out due to a concussion.
Henderson was rested for the midweek Champions League win over Napoli, while Milner was forced off in that game after taking a blow to the head.
“Hendo trained yesterday completely normal so he should be fine,” said Jurgen Klopp.
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“Millie is fine. When you go through a concussion protocol you are not available for the next game. He is available for non-contact training on Monday and full-contact training on Tuesday if everything goes well which is what we expect.”
Milner initially played on after being hurt before the break against Napoli but early in the second half, he signalled to the bench that he needed to be replaced.
“It is difficult because you know there are two sources — one is the doctor, one is the patient,” added Klopp.
“I had concussion once or twice in my life and they felt different. He was fine when it happened, in the dressing room he was fine but then he came out and was like ‘woah, what’s going on here?’ The player is the most important source and he sat down and we took him off. Everybody takes it really seriously. Nobody wants to push a player through with a concussion.”
Meanwhile, Klopp hit out at the “crazy” scheduling that means any player picking up an injury at this stage faces missing out on the World Cup in Qatar.
“I hate this subject! These problems were so clear and nobody mentioned it one time until three or four weeks before the World Cup,” he continued.
“Now all of a sudden players get injured and you say ‘he cannot play the World Cup’. The situation, players getting injured late in the season and missing the World Cup, is not new. After a long season, it happens everywhere in the world.
“But now starting the World Cup a week after the last (Premier League) game? That is a bigger risk. Crazy. Nobody cares about us and how we deal with it.
“You ask me the question now. What do you think I should do? Should I ask the players before Southampton or Derby, ‘do you really want to play?’ We are all guilty, and you more than I am, for letting it happen in the first place.
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“And now it happens and that is it, we have to go along with it and the players who get injured and cannot play it is a disaster, but how can we change that?”
GO DEEPER
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(Photo: Getty Images)
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James Pearce joins the Athletic after 14 years working for the Liverpool Echo. The dad-of-two has spent the past decade covering the fortunes of Liverpool FC across the globe to give fans the inside track on the Reds from the dressing room to the boardroom. Follow James on Twitter @JamesPearceLFC
