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What's the story?
Norwich City will travel to Anfield Stadium to face Liverpool this Friday in the Premier League 2019-20 opener. Ahead of the fixture, Klopp provided updates on Sadio Mane's availability.
In case you didn't know...
Sadio Mane, who scored 22 goals in the Premier League last season for Liverpool, played a pivotal role for Klopp's side.
The top scorer of the 2018-19 Premier League season, Mane made six appearances for his country in the Africa Cup Of Nations and helped Senegal to qualify for the finals, scoring six goals throughout the course of the competition. However, in the final, Mane's Senegal suffered a narrow 0-1 defeat at the hands of Algeria.
Liverpool's no.10 returned to Melwood and joined his teammates on Monday after enjoying extra holidays due to international commitments. Although Mane's involvement with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino in Liverpool's attacking half would be an obvious threat for their opponents, Klopp is unlikely to start Mane from the beginning of the match.
The heart of the matter...
Speaking in the pre-match press conference, Klopp confirmed that Mane could be an option for Liverpool. He said:
“Yes. He had only two weeks off, so he didn’t lose a lot and that’s the good news.
“He looks fit. Yes, he is an option.
“Yesterday was the first session with the team because Monday he came in about four o’clock or so when we’d already left and Tuesday the team was off and he had his individual session.
“Yes, he [was] now with the team for the first time and looks absolutely OK, in good spirits and looking forward to it.
“So, yes, he’s an option but we will see.”
What's next?
Although Klopp has given the green light to Mane's availability for the Premier League opener, we might see Divock Origi starting this weekend's fixture against Norwich City.
