Sadio Mane to miss Liverpool's Asia trip

CAIRO – 13 July2017: Liverpool FC confirmed on July 12 that Senegal’s Sadio Mane will miss the Red’s pre-season tour of Hong Kong in order to continue his rehabilitation program from a knee injury.
“He is really, really good. He is close; he is closing on coming back to team training," Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool’s manager, told Liverpool’s official website.
A knee injury ended Mane’s 2016-17 season prematurely back in April, subsequently requiring surgery.
“In this moment, we think it will be when we are in Asia, so then it makes no sense to take him to Asia, because he needs to then do the first steps in kind of team training. We will see how we can do it; maybe [some of] the U23s will be here, so when he can start this [training], then we can use this opportunity, but we have to wait,” the Liverpool manager added to the website.


“On Tuesday morning, he was part of the running, so he is first-team training if you want, and that looked really good. I think he is getting better, but it is how it is after a long time – you need to build a little bit of muscle again in the quad and thigh, which is important,” Klopp said.


Klopp added, “There is no risk with him, because he is a naturally fit boy, and in the moment when he can start to be a real part of the sessions, he will then immediately be fit again. We have not all the time in the world, but we have time and we will use it.”

Mane scored 13 goals with Liverpool last season, helping them regain Liverpool’s Champions League spot.