Klopp confirms: van Dijk and Gomez will be involved against Bologna

The Reds' preparations for the next Premier League season continue with two 60-minute games against the

team. 

Last time out, the central defense pair made their long-awaited comebacks against

Hertha Berlin

, playing the closing 21 minutes of the 4-3 loss. 

Van Dijk

hadn't played since sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament rupture against Everton in October 2020, while

Gomez

got his first minutes back after injuring a tendon in his left knee while on international action with England the next month.

Klopp is delighted with the pair's development and believes they will earn more playing time against Bologna. 

"Hopefully, yes. That's how it looks in the moment," he told the official club website. "I want to make it really clear, we push nothing. 

"We know exactly how they feel – how they really feel and not what they tell us because they obviously are desperate to play again. 

"It looks good, this morning [it was a] normal training session. Sometimes in moments, we swap Virgil and Joe a little bit, so maybe the intensity doesn't get too high, but in general, it looks really good. 

"How many minutes on Thursday, I don't know, but there will be some minutes for sure."

Alisson

,

Fabinho

, and

Roberto Firmino

may also be eligible to play, according to Klopp. 

All three have returned from a lengthy layoff after assisting Brazil arrive at the

final, in which they lost 1-0 to Argentina. 

Liverpool's

season will start on August 14 against Norwich City, and Klopp says the returning Brazilians' prep time is far from optimal. 

Nonetheless, the German stated that they might face Sinisa Mihajlovic's side, who ranked 12th in Serie A last season.

"The players who play international football never have enough time; that was always like this," he added.

"You never have enough time to train and stuff like this – a week, two weeks before the season.

"[The Brazilian players] will start tomorrow with training properly with us.

"Maybe on Thursday in our two 60-minute games against Bologna, we can involve them already. I don't know yet – maybe 15, 20, 30 minutes. We have to see how they look exactly."

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