Thiago, Matip and Keita ruled out for Liverpool against Midtjylland

Liverpool have suffered a triple blow on the injury front ahead of their Champions League clash with Midtjylland as Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita and Joel Matip are set to miss the encounter.

The Reds began the competition with a 1-0 win over Ajax, suffering from a number of selection difficulties, and it seems that manager Jurgen Klopp will also have to juggle his options ahead of the encounter against the Danish outfit.

Liverpool overcame Sheffield United 2-1 on Saturday, coming from a goal down to win, without the trio, and the former Borussia Dortmund boss does not forecast that any will return for the match on Tuesday.

Asked in a press conference if any will be ready, he replied: “I don’t think so. It’s still what I said last week, we look day by day.

“It looks like we will need a few more days. For tomorrow night, they probably will not be ready.”

The German did, however, receive a boost in that no-one picked up a significant knock in the come-from-behind success over the Blades – a match in which Diogo Jota scored a late winner. 

When quizzed on any fresh injury news, he explained: “Not as far as I know… nobody told me yet. I don’t know exactly. It’s probable that no-one will be added to the squad, but we didn’t lose anybody as well.”

Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum featured in the heart of the Liverpool midfield at the weekend, replacing Thiago and Keita, while Fabinho was drafted in as cover at centre-back, where the Reds are without long-term injury victim Virgil van Dijk.

Such are the depth of Liverpool’s problems, they have little significant experience open to them on the bench, with James Milner, Takumi Minamino and Xherdan Shaqiri their seasoned available outfield substitutes.

Liverpool are seeking to improve upon their round-of-16 performance in the Champions League last season, having been dumped out of the competition at Anfield by Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid. They kicked off their latest campaign with a win in Amsterdam last week, with Nicolas Tagliafico netting an unfortunate own goal for Ajax.

Meanwhile, the Reds have enjoyed a broadly satisfactory start to the defence of their Premier League title and find themselves second behind city rivals Everton on goal difference, albeit having played a game more than third-placed Aston Villa.