Arne Slot issues major Alexander Isak injury update for Liverpool

Arne Slot issues major Alexander Isak injury update for Liverpool - 'will take time'

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has issued an update on Alexander Isak's fitness ahead of Sunday's Premier League clash at Nottingham Forest

Alexander Isak could be back in action for Liverpool by the end of next month - with Reds boss Arne Slot convinced the striker can start justifying his £125million price tag this season.

Isak has been absent since sustaining an ankle injury that included a fibula fracture when caught by Micky van de Ven in the process of scoring the opener in Liverpool's 2-1 Premier League win at Tottenham Hotspur shortly before Christmas.

The Sweden international has suffered a difficult campaign since his British record move from Newcastle United at the start of September, first hampered by a lack of pre-season and then a groin problem that meant he had scored only three goals in 17 appearances before his most recent injury setback.

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Liverpool released photographs last week of Isak having stepped up his rehabilitation, doing some ball work inside the gym at the AXA Training Centre.

And now Slot has detailed another major step in the 26-year-old's recovery.

"Alex has been on the pitch, not with his football boots but with his running shoes for the first time this week, so that will take a while as well," said the Reds boss.

"It’s nice for him to go on the pitch, it’s nice for us to see him here because there is still enough work to be done, but you know, as a player, you arrive in the final stages of your rehab, and as long as you’re in the gym and not the pitch, that’s not the nicest part.

"The next step is doing work with the ball, which every player likes most. Then the next step is to come into the group and then it takes a while before you’re ready to play. But it’s nice that rehab goes well; that’s a compliment to him and our medical staff."

Slot confirmed Isak is eyeing a return to action around the March international break, which could make him available for Sweden's World Cup play-off semi-final against Ukraine, with the forward's national team hoping for a final date against either Poland or Albania several days later.

"It will be around that period of time; end of March, start of April, where he is hopefully back with the group," he said.

"It will be somewhere around there and then it’s always a question if things go really well or he gets a bit of a setback. In the gym you can hardly do too much but at this stage you constantly have to tick the next box and the next box.

"When you are back with the group that is not to say you are ready to play, let alone start a game a game of football because again he’s been out for months and the last time he was out for months we could all see it took him a while before he was the player who we signed from Newcastle.”

And while Slot believes Isak will benefit from a full pre-season in the summer, he expects the forward to be in a position to contribute to the team over the closing weeks of the season.

"That’s going to be a different period to know, but we also expect a different player from the end of the season to the one we had in the first part," he said.

"That makes complete sense because I’ve said it a hundred times that we have to give him time. If a player has had four-five months of only individual training, we cannot expect he is up to speed straight away.

"So unfortunately for him and us, we haven’t used the best Alex yet but this club and our fans will hopefully see the best Alex this season but, for sure, in the upcoming years."

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