´Of course´ – Salah certain he will be fit for Champions League final

Liverpool star Mohamed Salah is confident he will be fit to face Real Madrid in the Champions League final despite suffering an injury in the FA Cup final win over Chelsea.

Salah was forced off just over 30 minutes into Saturday’s showdown at Wembley.

Even without their talisman, Liverpool went on to claim their second trophy of the season – the Reds triumphing 6-5 on penalties after a goalless draw over 120 minutes.

Liverpool have two Premier League games remaining, and sit three points behind leaders Manchester City, before they then face Madrid in Paris on May 28 and there was concern over Salah’s participation after he was withdrawn.

But asked by reporters if he would be fit to feature against Los Blancos, a smiling Salah replied: “Of course.”

Salah was not the only Liverpool player to suffer in north London. Andrew Robertson had to go off with apparent cramp, albeit his replacement Konstantinos Tsimikas scored the winning spot-kick, while Virgil van Dijk was replaced by Joel Matip at the end of normal time.

Van Dijk had an issue with his knee, but told ITV Sport that he is hopeful it was a minor injury.

“Hopefully well, we’re going to check it out,” he said. “I felt in the first half when I sprinted, I felt a twinge behind my knee, I played on.

“In the end, I can’t risk it for the team and I need to trust Joel. Hopefully it will be fine.”

He’s @VirgilvDijk pic.twitter.com/IUtM3wfcDe

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) May 14, 2022

In his post-match news conference, Jurgen Klopp said: “Obviously I spoke to both already after the game, both are really okay. All that we know is it’s not a big thing, we really came through.”

However, he is unsure if the pair will be fit to face Southampton on Tuesday.

“But the next game is on Tuesday and that’s obviously pretty quick,” he continued. 

“I think they both will be fine, but not… maybe… we have training tomorrow morning, then if they tell me ‘I’m completely fine’ I will be surprised but I will take it and then we have to go from there. So we will see.”

With Salah and Van Dijk playing this season, Liverpool have won 31 times out of 43 games, suffering only three defeats.

The Reds have scored 101 goals across all competitions in matches the duo have featured in, while they have managed 41 in the 17 games that at least one of the two have missed.

However, Liverpool have not lost any of those games, winning 13 and drawing four.

Their average goals conceded per game does, though, rise slightly, from 0.7 with the pair playing, to 0.9 without.