Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could be back before the end of the season

As if they need another star midfielder...

Liverpool's Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could return to training by February, Jürgen Klopp has confirmed. The midfielder needed surgery on a knee injury picked up after a tackle on AS Roma's Aleksandr Kolarov during last season's Champions League semi-final at Anfield. It soon became clear that he would miss the remainder of the 2017/18 campaign and the World Cup, with Klopp also warning that it was likely he would miss the entirety of this season. Though Klopp has not put a date on when he is likely to play again, the Liverpool boss has confirmed Oxlade-Chamberlain is expected to join in with training in two months.

"Best news. He started going on the pitch and looked normal. We had to wait for the reaction and there was none," the German explained. "No pressure so late February/March for him to come back to training."

This follows Oxlade-Chamberlain's celebratory Instagram post which revealed he'd started to run again at Liverpool's Melwood training centre. The 25-year-old arrived at Anfield from Arsenal in the summer of 2017. Over the course of the season, he showed himself to be an important member of the Liverpool first team. Despite him being a significant loss over the course of this season, Liverpool have managed to open up a six-point gap between themselves and Manchester City at the top of the table. Should they remain in such a position in a couple of months, there's a chance Oxlade-Chamberlain could end the season as a Premier League champion.