LIVERPOOL are sweating on Fabinho’s fitness ahead of a tricky Champions League clash against Leipzig.
The Reds travel to neutral territory in Budapest for their last 16 first leg tie on Tuesday night.
And Jurgen Klopp’s men hope Brazilian Fabinho returns in defence after a defensive calamity.
Fabinho missed the 3-1 defeat at Leicester with a muscle injury and will be assessed by the Reds.
Liverpool collapsed to a late defeat after a horrendous mix-up between Ozan Kabak and goalkeeper Alisson.
Klopp is expected to keep faith in his £75million goalkeeper after two poor performances.
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Jordan Henderson could continue at centre-back if Fabinho is ruled out.
In midfield, Thiago is expected to return and play alongside Georginio Wijnaldum and Curtis Jones.
Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino should all play up front in Hungary.
James Milner was added to the casualty list when he limped off against Leicester on Saturday.
Fabinho could return after missing Leicester with a muscle issueCredit: Reuters
Alisson has made howlers in back to back games, but Jurgen Klopp is expected to keep faith in himCredit: Reuters
The Reds are still without long-term absentees Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Diogo Jota.
Liverpool are missing up to nine first-team players in total, including new signing defender Ben Davies.
The Champions League is Liverpool’s last chance of silverware this season after Jurgen Klopp conceded the title.
Man City are 13 points clear of last year’s champions with a game in hand.
And after defeat at Leicester on Saturday, Klopp said: “I don’t think we can close the gap this year, to be honest. We have to win football games, and a large part of our game today was very good.
“What we need to try to avoid are mistakes and misunderstandings.
“In two situations today we didn’t do that and that’s how they were allowed to score two goals.
“Results are massively related to the performance – we were good enough today to win the game apart from a couple of mistakes towards the end.
“When you are new together this usually happens but it happens in pre-season. Unfortunately, we’ve not had that. We’re not worrying about the title, we’re not silly.
“We have a tough game on Tuesday and then the derby next week. That’s what we’re thinking about.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
