Premier League news: Liverpool star Xherdan Shaqiri reports back to pre-season injured, Jurgen Klopp confirms
The Switzerland playmaker suffered a calf injury on international duty last month which has still not fully healed
Xherdan Shaqiri is racing to be fit for the start of the new campaign having reported back to Liverpool's pre-season nursing an injury.
Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, has confirmed Shaqiri faces 'a while' on the sidelines as he fully recovers from a calf problem sustained playing for Switzerland against England last month.
The former Stoke player returned to the club's Melwood training ground this week and assessment by medical staff has given Klopp a headache as he steps up his pre-season preparations.
"Shaq is still injured from the national team and it will take a while until he is in again," Klopp told . "He has a tear in his calf, so he will not be involved for a while."
The 27-year-old, a £13million buy last summer, has plenty to prove to Klopp after fading in the second half of Liverpool's superb 2018/19 campaign.
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Having enjoyed a two-month, nine-match purple patch from late October - in which he scored six goals - he fell out of favour in 2019 as the Reds finished runners-up in the Premier League and won the Champions League.
Shaqiri made just 11 appearances after the turn of the year, only four of which were starts.
His current absence leaves Klopp short in attacking options for pre-season, with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah not back on Merseyside yet due to their involvement in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Similarly, Brazil's Copa America campaign means Roberto Firmino remains absent from training.
Champions League hero Divock Origi - now in the final year of his contract with a new deal offered but not yet signed - is the manager's only senior forward after the departure of Daniel Sturridge.
Youngster Rhian Brewster will be part of the first-team squad full-time this season after recovering from serious ankle and knee injuries, while Harry Wilson, who impressed on loan at Derby, will get a chance in pre-season.