Jurgen Klopp plays down injury fears over Ryan Gravenberch after Liverpool’s new £35m midfielder limped off on his debut in 3-1 victory against LASK
- The Liverpool midfielder limped off in Thursday’s Europa League victory
- But Reds boss Jurgen Klopp isn’t concerned after speaking to the 21-year-old
- Click here to watch the IAKO Battle of Old Trafford YouTube Special from the Mail Sport Studios
Jurgen Klopp has calmed fears that Ryan Gravenberch could be set for a spell on the side-lines after limping off injured in Liverpool’s Europa League group stage win on Thursday evening.
The midfielder moved to Anfield in a £35m summer switch from Bayern Munich and was handed his first start as the Reds came from behind to beat LASK 3-1 in Austria.
Gravenberch starred in his midfield pivot role and provided the assist for Luis Diaz’s second-half goal that handed the visitor’s the lead for the first time in the match.
However, there was concern from Liverpool supporters when they saw the 21-year-old Dutchman cautiously edging his way off while being substituted, however, Klopp insists the issue was only cramp and not a serious problem.
‘(He played) very good, he told me he had cramp so that makes sense,’ said the Liverpool manager on TNT Sports.
Jurgen Klopp (middle) has calmed injury fears over Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch (middle left)
The 21-year-old received treatment before limping off in the 71st minute on Thursday evening
‘It was his first start for a while I think and he did really well. For a long time he was the best player on the pitch and in the first-half frustration grew a little bit and you saw him getting lost a little bit, you know, “where is he?”.
‘But that’s normal these things happen but he stayed in the game as long as he could and had really good moments, set up a good goal for Luis Diaz and for not knowing a lot about his team-mates it looked pretty tuned,’ added Klopp.
Liverpool went behind early on in their first Europa League outing since losing in the final against Sevilla in 2016 during Klopp’s first season in charge.
Wholesale changes during the seven-years since then means not one player that started that game featured for Liverpool on Thursday as they embark on their silverware campaign in Europe’s second-tier cup competition.
Gravenberch was handed his first start for the Premier League giants after making his debut as a substitute in Liverpool’s weekend win over Wolves.
His last start prior to that came in a 2-1 Bundesliga win for Bayern Munich against Koln on the final day of last season where he was hooked by Thomas Tuchel after 71 minutes.
Klopp revealed that Gravenberch was suffering from cramp before second-half substitution
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