Jurgen Klopp admits Mo Salah is bucking a trend with squad place

Jurgen Klopp admits Mo Salah is bucking a trend at Liverpool by taking a place in the Reds' Europa League Last 16 squad on Thursday. The Egyptian is in line to face Sparta Prague.

Jurgen Klopp highlighted how unusual it is that Mo Salah has made it into Liverpool's squad to face Sparta Prague. The Reds will take on the Czech team on Thursday in the Europa League Last 16.

And with injuries at the forefront in 2024, Liverpool have welcomed the news that Salah is back and ready to play. He's only featured for the side twice in 2024 - one start on New Year's Day, and 46 minutes against Brentford last month.

But Klopp was quick to point out that Salah actually hasn't even trained much. Just twice, it appears, and that wouldn't usually be enough to make a squad. With big games coming rapidly, however, it 'makes sense' to buck the trend.

"Let's see how long he can play now," Klopp told a press conference on Wednesday. "It's two days in team training now - in a different situation, players are not in the squad in this moment. But in our situation it makes sense."

Klopp also made it clear that he has no say on Salah's involvement at international level during the break later this month. If he does play over the next few games, after all, Egypt are likely to call him up.

"[We'll see] what we can give him, how much can we use him, we will see that," he said. "Two games with Egypt? It's really not up to me with stuff like this."

Mo Salah back for Liverpool

Salah has long held a reputation at Anfield for recovering remarkably fast. It seems this is another example of that, with Klopp ready to 'risk' his star forward after just two days of training.

Not that anyone should expect a full 90 minutes in Prague. It's far more likely that this will be about getting Salah enough minutes that he can play a significant role on Sunday against Manchester City.

Still, the fact Liverpool feel comfortable doing that is a sign of his fitness levels. Salah is a phenomenon in that regard.