(Reuters) – Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold returned to training on Monday, the Merseyside club’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders said on Tuesday ahead of their League Cup third round match against Leicester City.
Alexander-Arnold, who injured his hamstring in a 3-0 Premier League win over Aston Villa earlier this month, also missed England’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Ukraine and their friendly against Scotland.
“Trent, he was training yesterday in rondos and counter-pressing and he looked outstanding,” Lijnders told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s home meeting with Leicester.
“Tomorrow comes too early for him.”
Lijnders also provided an update on midfielder Thiago Alcantara, who underwent hip surgery before the start of the season, saying: “We miss Thiago and his quality. He’s still not back in training but he’s healing. Time will tell how that goes.”
On Wednesday, Liverpool face a Leicester side whose bid to earn promotion back to the top-flight has gotten off to a strong start, with the 2016 Premier League winners top of the second-tier Championship’s standings after winning seven of their opening eight games.
“We know we are going to play against a team that has a lot of quality, shown with how they are doing in the league,” Lijnders said.
“This coach (Enzo Maresca) does an unbelievable job and I think each of them could play in the Premier League. It will be hard for us to deal with their players and also put them under pressure.
“As always, we will focus on ourselves. We will make changes but we want to be dominant and be in their half of the pitch. We need to stop them so the best way to do that is to high press. We have to defend and respect them.”
Lijnders also praised attacker Mohamed Salah, whose goal in Liverpool’s 3-1 win over West Ham United on Sunday made him the fifth player to score or assist in each of his team’s first six Premier League games of the season.
“He is breaking record after record and we have a very special player on our hands and a mentor as well. A leader,” Lijnders said.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
