Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez seem determined to return to the field sooner rather than later.
Liverpool shared photos of both defenders doing injury-rehabilitation work Thursday via Twitter. The shots show van Dijk and Gomez performing drills, as they seek to recover from serious knee injuries they sustained in October and November, respectively.
Van Dijk underwent surgery in October to repair his damaged ACL. Liverpool initially declined to set a timetable for his return, and manager Jurgen Klopp maintained that position Wednesday at a press conference, in which he provided an encouraging update on the superstar center-back.
“I don’t know what is possible and what is not possible; I don’t think I’m the right person to judge that 100 percent,” Klopp told reporters when asked whether van Dijk will return this season. “He looks really good. I spoke to him this morning, I had him on the phone. He is in a really good mood. So it’s all very promising. But I don’t know when he will be back.
“There are for sure a lot of stages still to go over or pass or whatever. That’s clear. I had this injury myself. But for the time we are in and for how long he is out now, how long the rehabilitation is going on, he looks really, really promising. But that’s all.”
Gomez in November underwent a surgical procedure to repair a damaged tendon in his knee. Although Liverpool hasn’t announced when he might return, his injury was less severe than van Dijk’s — no ligaments were damaged. Barring any unforeseen setbacks, Gomez should return to the heart of Liverpool’s defense before van Dijk.
