Liverpool are likely to make changes for Wednesday’s Champions League clash with LASK, according to manager Andoni Iraola.
A 23-man squad travelled from Merseyside to Austria for the second matchday, with Cody Gakpo, Alexander Isak and Dominik Szoboszlai still sidelined.
The trio missed last weekend’s Premier League defeat to Manchester City after sustaining fitness issues while on international duty.
Asked for an update on them at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Andoni Iraola replied: “They are not far, but it’s difficult to tell you right now any of the three have trained with the group.
“We are taking it day to day.
“Probably I think the three of them are not far, I would say. But it’s going to be… I don’t know if they are going to be ready for Brentford, for Villarreal, for Brighton, I don’t know. I don’t really know.”
On the possibility of altering his line-up for the 5.45pm BST kick-off in Linz, the boss continued: “Tomorrow is a game that we want to win, we need to win.
“We want to start this competition strongly. We have already the first win and we want to win the second one, because it’s always difficult to win games in this competition.
“But it’s true that sometimes because of freshness reasons, because of some niggles, I think it’s going to be difficult to put exactly the same starting XI tomorrow.”
Liverpool’s clash with LASK is the second of nine matches in a 28-day period, with the Reds looking to bounce back quickly from their Premier League defeat to Manchester City.
A trip to Brentford follows on Saturday before Liverpool host Villarreal in their next Champions League fixture on Tuesday.
“You don’t have a lot of time to train,” said Iraola. “You try to prepare the games now a lot of times just with the videos and the tactics boards, just a little bit outside.
“You have to prioritise the freshness of the players. Especially now we are playing four games in 10 days, it’s keeping all the legs, all the energy in the games.
“But in cases like Bradley [Barcola] especially, who has been probably the last one to arrive, the more he plays and the more he gets connections with the ones around him, the better he will become.”
Read more: Robbie Fowler reaches agreement with Steven Gerrard about Florian Wirtz at Liverpool
Why Ryan Gravenberch is suspended for Brentford v Liverpool
Andoni Iraola slams referee Chris Kavanagh over Ryan Gravenberch red card against Manchester City
