Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has, on Friday, provided fitness updates on a pair of key members of the club’s first-team squad.

The Reds, of course, were back in action earlier today.

Fresh off a concerning 4-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in their pre-season opener earlier in the week, Klopp and co. faced off with another Premier League rival, on this occasion in the form of Crystal Palace.

And an altogether more encouraging 90 minutes for Liverpool, in the end, saw them emerge on the right side of a 2-0 scoreline.

One concern on an otherwise positive afternoon the Merseyside giants in Singapore, though, was forthcoming on the personnel front.

This came late in the first-half, when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was forced to limp out of proceedings with what appeared to be a muscular problem.

Speaking to the media post-match, it therefore came as little surprise when Jurgen Klopp was drawn on the wellbeing of his oft-sidelined midfield star:

“It’s very disappointing for him and for us,” the German began. “Ox had trained all the time really well and had looked really good.”

“It has happened in the past with Ox when he has had intense periods. This is just a muscle thing and we’ve had worse situations. I don’t know exactly how long it will take. But he’ll come back and it will be all fine. He’s a top class player who can help us.”

Even more significant, though, were updates on the wellbeing of a pair of regular starters for Liverpool, in the form of Alisson and Diogo Jota.

Both the shot-stopper and versatile attacker have been forced to sit out the Reds’ pre-season endeavours to date, owing to respective injury concerns.

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LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 16: Diogo Jota celebrates during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Liverpool at Emirates Stadium on March 16, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

And Klopp went on to confirm that, whilst Alisson is in with a shot of recovering fitness in time to feature against Manchester City in the Community Shield later this month, Jota has been definitively ruled out:

“Ali has a chance for the game against City, Diogo not.

“With Ali, it’s nothing serious but we’re preparing for the whole season. It’s just not ideal. He can’t do goalie training with it and shouldn’t play in this moment, but he can still do some other things. These things happen. Only a little thing but we have to be careful.”

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