Jurgen Klopp has described Thiago‘s new hamstring injury as “not cool,” but insisted the Liverpool midfielder was not yet ruled out for the rest of the season.
Days after his cameo appearance against Arsenal – which marked a return after nine months out – Thiago has been dealt a major blow.
Reports earlier this week revealed that the Spaniard had suffered a muscle injury, with it later explained to be a hamstring issue that cast doubt over any further outings for Liverpool.
Speaking ahead of the visit of Burnley on Saturday, Klopp described the injury as “not cool.”
“Everything looked absolutely fantastic in training, we showed quite a lot of things on LFCTV, it looked outstanding,” he told reporters.
“You think take him [to Arsenal], let him play a few minutes, then it’s a muscle issue.
“We don’t know the extent yet. We have to wait a little bit.
“It’s not cool, not good news for him, for us, on top of losing the game already, having that is not good.”
Asked directly if he felt Thiago could play again this season, Klopp said: “Yes, but we didn’t really think about that.
“We just treat the injury and get the full assessment done, knowing where it came from.
“It’s not intensity, stuff like this. There are different things.
“It would not be a big story if he wasn’t out for that long [before]. It’s not a big, big injury, but it’s obviously not something he needed.”
Thiago‘s time at Anfield has been unfortunately blighted by his fragile body, with the 32-year-old playing 98 times but also missing 98 due to injury as of yet.
Per FBref, he has never played over 50 percent of the possible minutes in a single season at Liverpool, with his average of minutes played over the past three campaigns just 45.5 percent.
That is down from an average of 65.8 percent in the previous four seasons at Bayern Munich.
The total of games in which he has completed the full 90 at Liverpool (30) was eclipsed twice in a single season at Bayern (33 in 2016/17 and 32 in 2018/19).
It is a frustrating situation for all involved, with Thiago set to depart Anfield on the expiry of his contract this summer, having proved a masterful yet fleeting presence.
