Arne Slot has confirmed Liverpool striker Alexander Isak could return to team training as early as next month and believes the club may still get to see the “best Alex” this season.
Isak has been sidelined since December after breaking both his leg and ankle in Liverpool’s 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
The injury compounded a difficult start to life at Anfield for the £125 million ($168m) forward following his summer move from Newcastle United but he could yet have an impact for Slot’s side as they bid to finish the campaign strongly.
“Alex has been on the pitch, not with his football boots but with his running shoes for the first time this week, so that will take a while as well,” the Liverpool boss said. “I think we all know the moment you go onto the pitch it doesn’t take three months anymore but these final stages of rehab can also make things change.
“In the gym you can hardly do too much but at this stage you constantly have to tick the next box and the next box. Let’s not put a timescale on it but it is clear that he will be available — if things go as planned — this season.”
Asked whether Isak will be available around the March international break, Slot added: “It will be somewhere around there and then it’s always a question if things go really well or he gets a bit of a setback. It will be around that period of time; end of March, start of April, where he is hopefully back with the group.
“When you are back with the group that is not to say you are ready to play, let alone start a game a game of football because again he’s been out for months and the last time he was out for months we could all see it took him a while before he was the player who we signed from Newcastle.”
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Isak has so far scored just three goals in 16 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions, having struggled for both form and fitness before his injury against Spurs.
Reflecting on how the Sweden international will benefit from having a full preseason this summer, Slot said: “That’s going to be a different period to now but we also expect a different player from the end of the season to the one we had in the first part.
“That makes complete sense because I’ve said it a hundred times that we have to give him time. If a player has had four or five months of only individual training, we cannot expect he is up to speed straight away. So unfortunately for him and us, we haven’t used the best Alex yet but this club and our fans will hopefully see the best Alex this season but, for sure, in the upcoming years.”
