Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has urged Joe Gomez to grab his chance ahead of their clash with Leicester City.

The last 16 months have challenged Gomez; he had just started to show outstanding form for Liverpool when he ruptured the patella tendon in his knee during an England training session and subsequently saw the club buy Ibrahima Konate to increase competition in defence.

"It's really unlucky for Joe," Klopp acknowledged. "He has consistently played on an incredible level and has been one of the best centre-halves in England but then the big injury came and little injuries on top of that.

"Then he got covid. That timing was really bad because he would definitely have played against Cardiff and that would have given him some rhythm and momentum. But he couldn't play, so it has been tough."

Klopp also said: "The only thing I can say as well, there are tougher things than being a squad player at the moment for Liverpool. There are much tougher things out there and the only answer in football is you have to fight through and show you are ready for the moment when the situation changes.

"That's it. We had too often only one centre-half available or even none, so we couldn't have reacted differently, but the quality of the boys, especially Joe who has not played a lot of football in the last few months, is incredible.

"Having him in training just shows what a high quality squad we have if someone like Joe has only played 15 minutes since Leicester. It is never nice for the players – I understand that 100 per cent – but Joe takes it really professionally.

"He is a young lad and everything will be fine in the future but at the moment, it's for sure harder."