Two players could miss Liverpool vs. Everton due to injury

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Liverpool has no injury concerns heading into the Merseyside derby, but Everton remains uncertain about the availability of two defenders.

Arne Slot had good news to report during Friday's press conference, as he said that Curtis Jones, the only player to miss Wednesday's game against Atletico Madrid through injury, was back in contention to play.

Jones picked up the injury during Liverpool's win against Arsenal prior to the international break, which meant he also missed last weekend's trip to Burnley.

As for Everton, David Moyes said that Jarrad Branthwaite and Vitaliy Mykolenko have made progress in their recoveries, but it is not clear whether they will be ready to play at Anfield.

Mykolenko missed the Toffees' goalless draw with Aston Villa last weekend, while Branthwaite is yet to play this season after sustaining an injury in pre-season.

"Look, [Branthwaite and Mykolenko] are making progress and we'll see (for Saturday)," Moyes said. "We've got a couple of other knocks within the camp, but we'll see how they are.

"We have a squad of players and you hope that the players who you give the opportunities [when there are injuries] that they can hang on to the jersey. I thought Michael [Keane] has done great for us in the games he's played and long may that continue."

Meanwhile, Liverpool's Premier League-record signing, Alexander Isak, played 60 minutes on his debut against Atletico this week, and could be dropped to the bench to make way for Hugo Ekitike as Slot carefully manages his star signing's fitness.

Alexander Isak made his debut for Liverpool this week

Alexander Isak made his debut for Liverpool this week

Ahead of the derby, Slot was asked whether he would ever consider playing the pair together as a front two. He said: "I consider, of course, because you consider many things and it depends always on how well they are doing, so if both of them are in the best form of their life you would even consider it more, playing them together.

"But it’s also clear that we have a certain structure, which has mainly been 4-3-3 [and] playing with three midfielders, but the amount of times we have, at the end phase of the game, played with two nines, that has happened quite a lot as well.

"Hugo can indeed also play from the left differently from Cody [Gakpo] or Rio [Ngumoha] and that’s the good thing about our squad, we have multiple options.

"But first of all they all have to stay fit to have these options and if some of them are not fit then we might have to use them both in a 4-4-2. That all depends on the form of them and how many players we have available.

"All of them are fit now and I think I can maybe choose between 21 players, so that’s quite normal. It’s not that it’s far too much."

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