Alexander Isak will return to team training on Thursday as he closes in on a first appearance of 2026.
The £125m striker has been out since breaking a leg while scoring at Tottenham in December and has undergone surgery on an ankle injury. He had begun training last month, but without working alongside his teammates.
Head coach Arne Slot has suggested it is more likely that Isak makes his comeback in next week’s Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain than Saturday’s FA Cup trip to Manchester City.
But he said the former Newcastle forward is buoyed by the chance to play in the World Cup in the summer after Sweden won their play-off against Poland.
And while Isak has only scored three goals in 16 games for Liverpool since his British record transfer, Slot, who has bemoaned the number of chances his side have missed, thinks they will be more clinical when the striker is available.
The Dutchman told Liverpool’s official website: “I think Alex is in a really good place because Sweden qualified for the World Cup and apart from that he’s going to train with the group again for the first time [on Thursday].
“If you’ve worked so hard for three, four months or something like that and then to return to team training, that’s for everyone very nice. So Alex is, in that sense, in a good place.
“Of course it’s only his first session, after three or four months [out], with the team but it’s good to have him back because we all know who we signed and we’ve signed an incredible striker.
“So to have him again in a team that’s usually generating quite a lot chances – and maybe not immediately from the first moment that he can start – but to have him back for the last two months is, I think, very helpful for us.”
Liverpool expect Mohamed Salah, who missed their defeat to Brighton before the international break, to be fit for the quarter-final with City on Saturday.
