Jurgen Klopp confirms huge Liverpool boost ahead of Man Utd clash as £36m man has 'good chance' of returning

Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Ibrahima Konate has a 'good chance' of being available for Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final clash against Manchester United.

Konate missed Liverpool's 1-1 draw at home to Manchester City over the weekend after hobbling off in the mid-week Europa League win over Sparta Prague. The centre-back looked to have suffered a hamstring injury, raising concerns over a potentially long-term absence.

Klopp was forced to start 21-year-old Jarell Quansah at centre-back on Sunday and had no central defensive cover on the bench but the German is hoping to have the more experienced Konate back for the visit of United to Anfield.

Asked whether Konate’s injury is more serious than first thought, Klopp said: “No, no. Ibou has a chance for United. A good chance.”

The return of Konate will give Klopp some of that much-needed cover during what has been a tough period for Liverpool. Having returned from Prague with a 5-1 win in the first-leg of their Europa League clash, the Merseyside club have the luxury of being able to rest some key players for Thursday's second-leg ahead of the FA Cup clash.

“Today, Ibou Konate is out, then we start all three of our other centre-halves and if one goes down we play in the next six days two games with two centre-halves which play all the time," Klopp added. "All these kinds of things are really tricky but we came through it, and that’s why I said we played really good football in that time and we were lucky in moments: winning late, fighting hard, 99th minute and 118th minute and stuff like this. 

“We don’t take that for granted but today the performance was really like, ‘One or two players back, we can change like we changed, oh yeah, that is cool’ and that is why I am really happy about that today. Plus, what that means for the next game I have no idea, I don’t even know a little bit about the situation [and] if anybody feels more than tired. I didn’t ask yet, but it is just good information for me, that we can play like that. I’m really happy about that and now let’s see what we can do from here.”

United are hoping to have Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Harry Maguire and Rasmus Hojlund back for the trip to Anfield with Erik ten Hag confirming the trio are progressing well in their recovery.