Luis Diaz and Thiago Alcantara are in line to make their long-awaited Liverpool returns against Arsenal on Sunday.
Colombia international Diaz has not featured since October after suffering a knee injury but has been back in training since mid-March.
Jurgen Klopp has adopted a cautious approach over his return, however, resisting the urge to include him in the squad in recent games against Manchester City and Chelsea.
But after coming through Thursday’s training session unscathed, a return against the Gunners could be on the cards.
Thiago meanwhile has been unavailable since early February but has been back in training all week. The Daily Telegraph report the Spain international is expected to return to the squad if he continues to step up his return in the coming 48 hours.
Klopp made a number of changes to his starting XI for the midweek goalless draw with Chelsea with Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson dropped to the bench.
Salah was not pictured in Thursday’s training session but according to the Liverpool Echo, he was among a small group of players given a second recovery day ahead of the visit of the league leaders.
Virgil van Dijk also missed the clash with Chelsea through illness but the centre-half is expected to be ready for Sunday.
‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ Klopp said when asked if he expected the Netherlands captain to return against Arsenal. ‘He was ill but until the weekend we have a few days.’
Following the goalless draw at Chelsea and the 4-1 thrashing at Manchester City last Sunday, Liverpool sit eighth in the table, 10 points off the top four.
Arsenal head to Anfield with an eight point lead on second place Manchester City who have a game in hand. The Gunners have not won at Liverpool in the league since September 2013 with Gary Neville backing Mikel Arteta’s side to go on and win the league should they end that run this weekend.
‘If Arsenal go to Anfield and win I’d say definitely it will be their title because the confidence from that will be unbelievable. If they lose at Anfield it then becomes a really tight race,’ Neville told Sky Sports.
‘Our manager (Sir Alex Ferguson) would say to us if you’re playing Liverpool away at this time of year and you’re going for the title, and you win, you win the league. Quite often that proved to be the case.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
