Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah to miss Liverpool’s trip to Southampton

Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah will be fit for the Champions League final, Jürgen Klopp has confirmed. The manager said the pair would miss Liverpool’s trip to Southampton on Tuesday but could return for the Premier League finale against Wolves.

Liverpool’s influential defender and leading goalscorer were substituted during the FA Cup win against Chelsea with knee and groin issues respectively. Both will be absent at St Mary’s Stadium, where a Liverpool win would reduce Manchester City’s lead in the title race to one point with one game to play, but there are no concerns over their involvement against Real Madrid on 28 May. Klopp planned to rest Van Dijk at Southampton before injury intervened.

Klopp, asked whether Salah or Van Dijk could feature on Tuesday, replied: “No. Virgil definitely not. That was pretty much clear before the game already. We thought this was the game [to rest him] because he played really a lot. Saturday-Tuesday again was clear.

“They are both OK. The target for both would be that they could be involved again at the weekend. Properly involved. On the bench and on for a few minutes or start – we will see with that because that would be perfect for the [Madrid] game. If not, we take each day afterwards. It is very positive and we have no doubt about the Champions League final but we are pretty realistic about the Wolves game. But tomorrow, not.”

Klopp has reiterated that the financial package it would take to sign Kylian Mbappé is beyond Liverpool’s means. The France international is expected to join Real Madrid when his contract at Paris Saint-Germain expires next month, although there have been reports of another club entering the race for the striker. Klopp, who tried to sign Mbappé from