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Ryan Gravenberch made a welcome return to the Liverpool team against Aston Villa and marked it with a goal during the second half.
The Dutch midfielder was absent for Liverpool's games against Frankfurt, Brentford and Crystal Palace towards the end of October after hurting his ankle in a 2-1 loss to Manchester United.
Gravenberch emerged as a key player for the Reds under Arne Slot last season, and Liverpool does not have an alternative player in the squad that is anywhere near as effective at operating in a ball-carrying role from the base of midfield.
While Gravenberch was back in the squad, Slot remained without several first-team players, including Curtis Jones and Alexander Isak.
Slot's most recent comments about the pair came during a press conference on Friday, when he said that they were 99.9 per cent certain to miss out on the game against Villa.
"Ryan trained with us yesterday. The other two didn't yet," Slot said. "As I said many times, in the end phase of the injury things can slow down a bit or things can go faster. Let's wait and see where they are."
It is not clear when either player will return, but it seems probable that they will be back before the other three Liverpool players who are currently injured.
Giovanni Leoni faces a long road back to fitness after sustaining a serious knee injury in a League Cup game against Southampton in September.
"He is not in a good place because he tore his ACL, which means he will be out around a year," Slot said at the time.
"Being so young and coming to a new country and playing so well in your first game, it's very hard to take the positives. But you try to look at that, and that is that he is still so young, and he has so many years still to go after he recovers."
Jeremie Frimpong, meanwhile, is expected to be out until mid-December with a hamstring injury. "Jeremie is not in a good place," Slot said just over a week ago. "He's definitely not going to play today tomorrow or next week. The hamstring injury is going to take a while."
Goalkeeper Alisson has not figured since coming off in a Champions League game away to Galatasaray in September, but he shared a picture of himself back out on the training pitch at the AXA Training Center last week, suggesting a return to action might not be too far away.
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