Press conferenceInjury news: Updates on Conor Bradley and Ibrahima Konate from Arne Slot

Head coach Arne Slot reported during Friday morning’s pre-match press conference that the defensive duo – who both sustained issues during the Reds’ victory over Real Madrid last month – are currently the only members of his squad unable to take part in team training.

Slot said: “These are the two that are still ‘in the red’, so they don’t train with us at the moment. They are on their way back but they don’t train with the team yet.”

When asked to provide a realistic timeline for their returns, the boss replied: “That is, what I’ve said before, quite difficult. We thought, I thought, that [Diogo] Jota would have been back a bit earlier already and sometimes the end stage of rehab takes a bit longer.

“Sometimes they join [training] and then they are like, ‘I’m not completely ready to start yet.’ So, let’s wait and see but we have very good rehab personnel over here and they’ve done some good work already with Alisson [Becker] and a few others.

“The main thing is that if they come back, they are ready to come back and we must not focus on one, two or three days. It’s more important for the long term that they stay fit afterwards.

“Until now they have done really well and hopefully with Conor and Ibou the same thing happens.”