Jordan Henderson urges Liverpool squad to step up in trio's absence

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has admitted that the Reds are going to miss Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita a great deal in the coming weeks as AFCON kicks off, and he has urged the remaining squad to step up in their absence.

Salah and Mane in particular will be huge misses as we see AFCON remove two-thirds of our first-choice attack and it'll be up to the likes of Divock Origi, Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota and others to take up the goal-scoring mantle in their absence.

Indeed, Henderson has urged his teammates to step up and be counted in the coming weeks to limit any damage of not having the trio around, whilst also admitting that naturally the three will be missed:

"They (Salah, Mane and Keita) are fantastic players as we know, we will miss all of them. They will be big misses," he said via the Echo.

"That's the challenge, but hopefully that can make us stronger and stay together and use the fantastic squad we have got.

"Hopefully we can be in a good position when they come back. Everybody in the squad needs to be ready to play over this next period over the next few weeks."

Anfield Watch Verdict

There's no escaping it, Liverpool are going to be weaker in the next few weeks with AFCON getting underway.

We hope Salah, Mane and Keita all have productive tournaments with their respective countries and then return fighting fit, hopefully ready to spur on a Liverpool challenge for silverware in the concluding months of the campaign.