Jürgen Klopp has said Sadio Mané could be a surprise inclusion for Liverpool’s visit to West Ham United on Saturday and he would welcome international duty for the Senegal striker.
Mané has been sidelined for four weeks with a hamstring injury suffered during the last international week and had not been scheduled to return for Liverpool for another fortnight. That may yet be the case, with the 25-year-old returning to first team training only on Thursday and Klopp reluctant to risk a player who is not 100% fit, but the forward is being considered for a substitute’s role at the London Stadium.
“Sadio looked really, really good. We will see what we do with that,” said the manager. “Yesterday it looked like he is ready for at least 20-25 minutes but we have to wait to see how his body reacts to the session because for him it was pretty intense; not because it was intense but because it was his first football session for a long time. He did really well. He obviously didn’t miss his abilities or skills during the injury break, so that’s good.”
Mané is scheduled to join up with Senegal after the West Ham game for their crucial World Cup qualifying double-header against South Africa. And, despite his lack of match fitness and injury problems while on international duty, Klopp believes it could benefit Liverpool for Mané to feature for his country.
He explained: “We cannot ignore the situation of Senegal and say we don’t care if they play in the World Cup. It is not right and not nice. Sadio is not injured any more. Is he 100% fit? That is different. He has to go there and, if they can get the point they need, then maybe we can talk again [to the Senegal FA] and ask if it is necessary for him to play the second game and he can come back. That would be the ideal situation but we cannot decide it.
“If Sadio can play I really think he should because it is good to get some rhythm, otherwise he would not have played for how many weeks. It would be nice.”
Klopp was less impressed with Gareth Southgate’s omission of Daniel Sturridge from the latest England squad on the basis the striker is not starting regularly at club level. The Liverpool manager, who revealed Nathaniel Clyne has suffered a setback in his rehabilitation from a back injury, said: “If he [Southgate] now makes it like this then it could be difficult in the future if he sticks to this plan 100%, not for us but for England. When Daniel had a few injury problems he was called up because he is still the striker everyone thinks about. Now he is fit.”