Arne Slot provides update on Alexander Isak's potential return from injury

Liverpool’s No.9 has not played since December, when he underwent surgery on the ankle injury that included a fibula fracture he sustained while scoring in the 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur.

Last week, Liverpoolfc.com published photos of Isak undertaking his ongoing rehabilitation programme and Slot was asked about the striker’s recovery during his pre-Nottingham Forest press conference.

The head coach said: “Alex, I think he has been on the pitch now, not with his football shoes but with his running shoes, for the first time this week, so that will still take a while as well before he is ready to play for us again.”

See every word Slot said about Isak on Thursday below.

On how much of a mental boost being able to be back on the pitch has been for Isak…

I’m not sure if I educate you now but it’s not [that] before they go on the pitch that they are just laying in bed 24 hours a day, they also come to the training ground and do their work and do their gym work and do their rehab already.

But I think it’s nice for him to go on the pitch, it’s nice for us to see him there because, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but you do know as a player, you arrive in the final stages of your rehab [when you get back onto the pitch], where as long as you’re in the gym you are not on the pitch yet, that’s not the nicest part.

But the next step is, of course, doing work with the ball, which every player likes most, and then the next step is going into the group, and then it takes a while before you’re ready to play. But it’s nice that the rehab goes well, that’s a compliment for him but also to our medical staff.

On whether being able to get back playing before completing a full pre-season will be a ‘fresh start’ for Isak…

That’s going to give us a different player than we’ve had until now. But we’re also expecting a different player in the end of the season than the one we had in the first part, which makes complete sense because I’ve said it 100 times, I think, that we have to give him time.

If a player has been out for four or five months only with individual training, you cannot expect that – at the level we are playing here – he is up to speed straight away. So, unfortunately for him and for us, we haven’t used the best Alex yet, but this club and our fans will see the best Alex hopefully this season but for sure in the upcoming years.

On whether he now has a better idea on a timescale for when Isak will be able to rejoin the squad…

Yes and no. I think we all know when the moment you go onto the pitch [that] it doesn’t take three months anymore. But these final stages of rehab are also the ones that can make things change. So, in the gym you can hardly do too much and in this stage you constantly have to wait and see if you tick the next box, the next box, the next box… so, let’s not put a timescale on it, but it’s clear that he will be available, if things go as planned, this season.

On whether he expects Isak to be back before the March international break…

It will be somewhere around there and then it’s always the question if things go really well or if he gets a little bit of a setback. So, it will be around that period of time – end of March, start of April when he’s hopefully back with the group. When you’re back with the group it’s not to say that you are ready to play, let alone start, a game of football because, again, he’s been out for months and the last time he’s been out for months I think we could all see that it took him a while before he was the player we have signed from Newcastle.

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