Liverpool will make a late call whether to select Florian Wirtz in their Carabao Cup tie against Chelsea.
The German has an ankle problem and while manager Andoni Iraola hopes he will be available to play, he is not sure.
But Dominik Szoboszlai and Victor Munoz are major fitness doubts with thigh and knee problems respectively which have forced them to miss Liverpool’s last two games.
“Florian, I’m quite optimistic that he will be available,” said manager Iraola. “And with Dom and Victor, I’m not so sure. I don’t want to say no, but I think it’s going to be more difficult than Florian, yes.”
Wirtz is still waiting for his first goal against Premier League clubs this season after he seemed to open the scoring at home to Brighton on Sunday, only for it to go down as an own goal by Pascal Gross.
Liverpool will still be without the injured quartet of Hugo Ekitike, Conor Bradley, Giovanni Leoni and Jeremie Frimpong.
Iraola is set to rotate which could mean players such as Lewis Koumas, Trey Nyoni, Rio Ngumoha and Kostas Tsimikas come in.
He added: “There will definitely be changes. But we want to win the game, we want to be competitive.”
Chelsea will be without Cole Palmer, who is suspended after his sending off against Tottenham on Saturday.
But while they have a poor disciplinary record in recent years, Iraola insisted he will not send Liverpool out to wind Chelsea up or try and provoke them.
He added: “It is not going to be in our team meeting, we will not say anything.”
