Vice-captain James Milner is a doubt for Liverpool’s last 16 Europa League tie at home to Manchester United on Thursday, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The midfielder sat out training on Wednesday with a virus, and whilst Jurgen Klopp has said he will give Milner until the last minute to prove his fitness, the Echo say it’s unlikely that he’ll feature in the game.
Milner was sent off in Sunday’s last-gasp win against Crystal Palace and had been in decent form up until that point.
This blow adds to the news that Lucas Leiva will be out for up to six weeks with a thigh injury sustained taking a penalty in the League Cup penalty shootout loss to Manchester City.
With two central midfielders now injured, fit-again Joe Allen will likely have some involvement on Thursday, or Klopp will have to reshuffle the formation, with Daniel Sturridge pushing for a recall after a recent spell resting on the sidelines.
Liverpool go into the game high on confidence, after a Christian Benteke penalty meant that they snatched victory against Palace in controversial circumstances, despite playing for a large part of the game with 10 men.
Klopp has described the tie on Thursday as the “mother of all games”, and is expecting Anfield to be a partisan crowd when United come to town.
