Brendan Rodgers will assess the progress of Pepe Reina before deciding whether or not to include him in the Liverpool squad for Sunday’s Merseyside derby.
Reina suffered a minor hamstring strain while on international duty with Spain and was forced to sit out last weekend’s 1-0 win over Reading at the victory against Anzhi Makhachkala in the Europa League on Thursday evening.
He has returned to training but Rodgers is not sure if he will be ready for the trip to Goodison Park and will wait for as long as possible before making a call on his fitness.
“Pepe is back in training,” Rodgers told his pre-match press conference at Melwood. “So that’s good news. He’s working well and we’ll assess him over the next 12 hours.”
Brad Jones has covered for Reina in his absence and he is on standby to continue in the role should the Spain international be ruled out.
“Brad’s been excellent. The goalkeepers join in a lot of our work in training. They get involved in a lot of the possession work. Brad’s temperament has been excellent. I think he has come in and looked a real presence in the goal,” Rodgers went on.
“The nature of his game has been good and when he has been asked to make a save he has. So I’ve been really pleased with Brad since he has come in and played a number of our Europa League games and done very well.
“You need that competition with goalkeepers.”
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