Hamstring injury for £45M Liverpool star may open the door for 'sensational' Klopp favourite to start the new season

Liverpool's Diogo Jota has suffered a hamstring injury setback following returning to full-time training in pre-season.

Jota, 25, suffered the injury back in June playing for Portugal and was only given the green light to resume full training recently.

However, having missed out on the opening game against Manchester United to the injury sustained in June the £45M star pulled up on Wednesday evening with similar discomfort.

The injury could open the door for fan-favourite Roberto Firmino to start the season up front for the Reds.

Jota Injury

Jurgen Klopp spoke to the media ahead of their friendly with Crystal Palace where he addressed the Jota and Alisson injuries suffered in training.

“Diogo, unlucky eh?” said Klopp.

“He had an injury from the end of last season. He trained fully yesterday but got injured again. That’s really not cool. Now we have to wait for the results. He had an assessment this morning so we will have to see. It’s in the same area.

“Ali was not 100 per cent earlier. He felt something while warming up so again we will have to see. I think pretty much all the others are fine. It’s the period of the year when we have to be really careful.”

Who Could Play Instead?

With Jota potentially out for the start of the new season, Liverpool fans will be looking to who could replace the forward.

Star signing Darwin Nunez should start the first game of the season, but the Uruguayan has been complaining of a foot issue in pre-season so far, plus he did have that glaring miss on his debut against United.

Klopp may want to slowly bed in the £85M signing at the start of the season which could see one of the German's most tried and tested players take centre stage.

Firmino, 30, could be tasked with starting the new season up front after claims from Klopp that he looks 'sensational' in training after fully recovering from his injury troubles.

With Liverpool facing only one top-six team (Manchester United) in their first six games, Firmino could deputise and be the perfect focal point for Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah to kick off the season.