Georginio Wijnaldum has been ruled out of Liverpool’s FIFA Club World Cup semi-final with Monterrey due to injury.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp revealed this during his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
Wijnaldum, who has travelled with the team to Qatar, was forced off in the second half of the Reds’ victory over Watford on the weekend after suffering a muscle injury.
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However, Klopp played down Wijnaldum’s injury as not serious that Wednesday’s game will come too soon for the Dutch midfielder.
“Gini was not as serious we thought in the first moment, so he’s here doing the first recovery and then we have stuff what is necessary.
“So we will see day by day but for tomorrow night he’s not involved.”
Meanwhile, aside Wijnaldum’s injury Klopp also stated Virgil van Dijk is not currently dealing with any issue, despite the centre-half not training with the squad in Doha on Monday evening.
“Virgil is fine. We had to do different stuff for recovery for different people, so that was the reason why he was not involved yesterday in the session, but Virgil is fine. All the rest of the squad is fine.”
The winner between Liverpool and Monterrey will meet winners of the second semi-final between Flamengo of Al-Hilal, in the final.
Liverpool’s last outing at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan was in 2005 under Rafa Benitez.
The Reds defeated Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa 3-0 in the semi-final thanks to goals from Peter Crouch who bagged a brace and Steven Gerard.
But in the final against Sao Paulo of Brazil, Liverpool lost 1-0 after a 27th minute goal from Mineiro.
The last three editions of the FIFA Club World Cup was won by Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2016, 2017 and 2018 while rivals Barcelona won the 2015 edition.
