Alexis Mac Allister and Kostas Tsimikas are fitness concerns for Liverpool ahead of their match against Chelsea on Sunday, as both players missed full training at the AXA Centre on Friday.
Mac Allister was absent from the team session while working on his recovery after being substituted at half-time during Liverpool’s victory over Crystal Palace due to an adductor issue.
The Argentina international was cleared to play for the World Cup holders and featured in their 6-0 win against Bolivia early Thursday morning, having missed the earlier match against Venezuela.
Mac Allister played for 66 minutes before being replaced by Roma’s Leandro Paredes.
Despite his participation with Lionel Scaloni’s squad, he was not involved in Friday’s team training, opting instead for a gym session as he works toward a return to full training.
This leaves him doubtful for Sunday’s encounter with Chelsea.
Meanwhile, Tsimikas missed Greece’s win over England at Wembley during the international break due to illness and also sat out Friday’s session at Liverpool’s Kirkby base.
With Andy Robertson now set to return for the clash against Chelsea, Tsimikas’s absence poses a challenge for the Reds.
Kostas Tsimikas had started ahead of Scotland captain Robertson in the match against Crystal Palace before the international break, contributing an assist for Diogo Jota’s match-winning goal with a defence-splitting pass to Cody Gakpo.
However, his illness kept him from participating in the training session ahead of Sunday’s match. Robertson is expected to rejoin the back four, which has been the most resolute in the Premier League so far, conceding just two goals in seven games.
Speaking in his Friday morning press conference, before training, Slot said: “Now we’ve got quite some issues from players coming back from the national teams, and we can only judge that perfectly today because today is the first time that they are all in and the first time that they are all training together again.
“So, let’s see after the session where everybody is.
“Macca missed one game [for Argentina], he played the second one.
“Kostas missed out in the first game against England so I can name them all but we’ve got a few issues going on and let’s wait and see where we are after today.
“[Wataru] Endo as well [he] was also sick.”
Federico Chiesa also missed the training session as he continues to work towards his comeback, having been absent for the trip to Crystal Palace and the Champions League victory against Bologna on October 2.
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