Liverpool will carefully assess Virgil van Dijk's fitness ahead of Wednesday night's Carabao Cup tie with Chelsea.

The No.4 had to be taken off early in the second half of the weekend win against Southampton after sustaining a further knock to an already existing minor rib issue.

At his pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Jürgen Klopp was asked for an update on Van Dijk’s availability.

“He is much better. It is still a bit painful, nothing else,” replied the Reds manager.

“Painful is already not too cool, so we will see how we deal with that. But it’s already better. How we thought after the game, it’s not too serious but it’s not nothing.

“So that needs to settle, for sure. I didn’t speak to him [yet] today so we will see how he comes here today and then we’ll make a decision about him.”