Lallana, Henderson And Sturridge Out Of Derby – Klopp

Liverpool will be without captain Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana and Daniel Sturridge for Saturday’s Merseyside derby, manager Jurgen Klopp has said.

The Liverpool boss faces a selection headache ahead of Everton’s visit to Anfield on the weekend for the 228th encounter between the Liverpool-based sides.

Lallana is expected to be on the sidelines for up to a month after sustaining a thigh injury on international duty with England.

Klopp has been critical of the scheduling of England’s fixtures, with a friendly against Germany occurring just days after Liverpool’s draw with Manchester City.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday afternoon, Klopp said he was not “relaxed” about Lallana’s injury, but attributed no blame to England boss Gareth Southgate.

“Of course I was not happy,” he said. “I heard someone say I was relaxed about the situation. I could not be less relaxed about this, but it’s not about blaming Gareth Southgate.”

Henderson, meanwhile, has been absent for Liverpool’s last four matches with a foot problem. The midfielder has since suffered another blow in his rehabilitation process, with Klopp unable to provide a timescale on his return.

“Unfortunately he has had a little setback and he’s not in team training until now,” he said. “That’s how it is.

“I can’t say in this moment how long, but hopefully not too long. I know when we were here last time I said I hoped he could be in training this week already, but he wasn’t and next week doesn’t look like this too. We have to wait for this.

“It’s only a question of time unfortunately. It’s nothing what we could do. You can imagine if Hendo [had] a little chance that he could run, train or whatever then he could do it. We have to be really careful with him. We cannot take a risk or something. It’s always too long with all injuries, but it’s not the best time for us in this moment.”

Klopp also said Sturridge, who last played in February, had “no chance” of appearing at the weekend, having only just completed outdoor sessions with a rehabilitation coach.

But Liverpool will welcome the return of Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino from international duty with Brazil.

Sources said earlier this week that the club had arranged a private jet in order to bring the duo back to Merseyside as swiftly as possible, with Brazil playing a fixture in the early hours of Wednesday morning (U.K. time).

“They are OK for this weekend. How fresh they are, we will see on Saturday,” Klopp said. “The Brazilians had the longest trip, they came back the day before yesterday night.

“The club did everything to have them back as soon as possible. They had the most comfortable trip that you can have, otherwise they would land now and that would make absolutely no sense. That’s why we had to do this.

“Apart from Adam, nobody [came back] with bigger issues.”

Klopp has enjoyed victories in both of the Merseyside derbies he has taken charge of as Liverpool manager.

The German insists he was fully aware of the importance of the fixture to the people in the city of Liverpool as soon as he arrived at the club in October 2015.

“I think I am not skilled in a lot of parts of life but maybe I am a genius in understanding derbies because I didn’t need a second to understand this,” he continued.

“The world stops for 90 minutes in a city. Football is not the most important thing in the world but in a few moments we love to think it is.”