Updated 15:02, 08 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nAlexander Isak is in line to return (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n
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Alexander Isak is set to return to the Liverpool squad to face Chelsea on Saturday according to Reds boss Arne Slot.<\/p>\n
The Swedish striker missed the defeat to Manchester United with a minor injury, but Slot says he is back with the group ahead of the visit of the Londoners.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper Alisson Becker is still absent with his hamstring injury however, but Slot has suggested that second-choice Giorgi Mamardashvili could surprisingly be in line to deputise after he recovered from the gash he sustained in victory over Everton last month. The Georgian had been expected to be sidelined for at least another week.<\/p>\n
Mohamed Salah is still sidelined with his hamstring injury, but Slot confirmed that both Ibrahima Konate and Florian Wirtz are set to feature despite both missing training this week.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Alexis Mac Allister agent shares Liverpool star’s transfer stance amid contract silence<\/span><\/span>READ MORE: Desire Doue Liverpool ‘dream’ as Xabi Alonso sent manager warning<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n“Alex trained with us again yesterday for the first time. All good,” said Slot.<\/p>\n
“He did parts of it, hopefully he can do parts or everything today and we see how much we are going to use him.<\/p>\n
“Alisson not yet, Giorgi today for first time. Mo is very very close like Ali. Ibou had a personal reason for not training on Wednesday but was yesterday and today, and Florian was a bit unwell but trained yesterday as well.”<\/p>\n
The Reds take on the Londoners at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime knowing that a win will all but seal qualification for next season’s Champions League, securing the club’s minimal target during what has been a disappointing season.<\/p>\n
Chelsea, who will be managed by interim boss Calum McFarlane, sit ninth in the table after a dramatic slide in recent weeks as they have lost six league matches in a row, scoring just one goal in the process.<\/p>\n
FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE!<\/strong> All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo’s dedicated LFC Facebook page<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter taking on the west Londoners the Reds will round off their season with a trip to Aston Villa and a home game against Brentford.<\/p>\n
Discussing the end of the campaign, Slot said: “This season has gone in a way that even if we have three wins and positive performances, I don’t think anyone will be positive about the season.<\/p>\n
“It’s important we get at least one win over the line which might be enough. We are trying to do it in the best possible way, performance-wise.<\/p>\n
“The positive thing is a few of the players who can be really important for us are either coming back at the weekend or after the weekend. That will help us.<\/p>\n
“Three wins won’t silence the criticism. Therefore we need to have a much longer run of result and performances.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool take on Chelsea at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime and could welcome back two players…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}