Liverpool star Salah back from injury and may feature at Sparta Prague

Mohamed Salah will begin his build-up to Sunday’s clash with title rivals Manchester City with minutes in the Europa League against Sparta Prague after recovering from injury.

Klopp admits the Egypt international would not normally be in the squad after only returning to training on Tuesday but the current injury situation – there are at least nine first-team players absent – and the context of the season means he travelled with the squad.

And with the weekend’s Premier League encounter against City looming large, the 31-year-old – who has played just 46 minutes in one substitute appearance against Brentford since leaving the Africa Cup of Nations early with a hamstring injury on January 18 – will get a chance to shake off the rust.

“He is with us and has trained two days, he is full of energy, we have to see. But it is so good that he is back. It is really good and you can see he is happy,” said Klopp ahead of the last-16 first-leg tie.

“It’s an unusual situation being that long out and then came back against Brentford, played an incredible game and was then out again.

“Two days in team training: in a different situation players are not in the squad in this moment but now the situation make sense.

“We want to be careful, we have to be careful but we’re in the middle of a super-intense period of the season and we need everyone.

“So let’s see how long we can use him and these kinds of things. Yes, it’s just good news.”

Salah’s return to fitness has ignited a club-versus-country row as Egypt rejected Liverpool’s request to exempt their captain from an upcoming camp in Abu Dhabi for a friendly tournament where they will play New Zealand – Tunisia or Croatia await the winners – as they want to assess his fitness.

It has