Jurgen Klopp discusses whether Dominik Szoboszlai could make first start since January

Jurgen Klopp has discussed why Dominik Szoboszlai's return from injury has been drawn out, with the midfielder a possibility to start against Sparta Prague on Thursday.

Liverpool's £60m summer signing suffered a hamstring injury at the start of the new year, forcing him to miss four games.

After making a comeback in the 4-1 win over Chelsea in which he scored, Szoboszlai then sat out the next six matches after re-aggravating his issue.

The Hungarian has since returned off the bench in the second half of the Reds' 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the weekend and has been included in the 23-man squad for the Europa League last 16 tie against Sparta Prague on Thursday.

Hopefully, Szoboszlai's injury issues are fully behind him now as Liverpool approach a key juncture in the season. However, speaking in his pre-match press conference, Klopp stressed how the club needed to be cautious with the 23-year-old's recovery.

Asked directly if the midfielder is now fit enough to start on Thursday evening, Klopp replied: “You might be surprised, but we don’t talk about line-ups in these press conferences!

“It’s good that he’s back. You know him probably very well, he loves playing football, being injured for him is tough, tough, tough.

“It was not an injury where it was painful every day, he was just not allowed to train properly, how it is with muscle injuries.

“So that’s the reason why we had to be careful in his rehab because, if we would have asked Dom, he could have trained completely with the team since two or three weeks.

“But the medical advisors told us no, no, we have to wait, and that’s what we did. Now he’s back, played a few minutes and is in the squad. All the rest, we will see.”

Also in the press conference, Szobsoszlai's teammate Alexis Mac Allister added: “He had an injury but we cannot forget what he brings to the team, he is definitely as important as every player in this team and a special guy.”

Following the trip to Prague, Liverpool host Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday in what could be a key fixture in this season's title race.