Van Dijk and Gomez make long-awaited returns for Liverpool
Liverpool defenders Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez made their returns from long-term injuries in a 4-3 defeat to Hertha Berlin on Thursday.
Virgil van
Dijk
has been out since last October with an ACL injury, and days later
Gomez
was also sidelined for almost a year when he underwent to fix a knee injury he picked up while training for England back in November.
But
Jurgen Klopp
welcomed back Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez for the final 20 minutes of the Reds’ final pre-season game in Austria against
Hertha Berlin.
Van Dijk wrote on Twitter after the game:
“285 days ago, I started on a journey back towards playing. It’s hard to express how I am feeling, but it’s important to me that I say I feel blessed to have had the support of so many incredible people.”
There were also first pre-season outings for Andy Robertson and Diogo Jota, with the likes of Salah, Mane, and Trent Alexander-Arnold playing 60 minutes for the first time this summer.
Speaking to
LFCTVbefore Thursday's clash, Klopp confirmed that Liverpool will take on Bologna in two hour-long friendlies at a training camp in France.
"It’s now the last game in Austria, then we go to France, we have two 60-minute games against Bologna there,"
Klopp said
.
"Then we get home – finally, Anfield is calling! We’re getting closer. The season is not too far away anymore, so we should be better prepared."
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