Virgil van Dijk blow confirmed amid Liverpool injury return ahead of Tottenham

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that captain Virgil van Dijk is a doubt for Sunday's clash with Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield.

In addition, Diogo Jota is still not ready to return to the squad as they look to bounce back from a disappointing April, although Conor Bradley could be in contention. The Reds are set to host Spurs in what will be Klopp's second last game as manager at Anfield, but may have to do so without their skipper Van Dijk, who was absent from Thursday's training session at the AXA Centre.

Klopp said: "There are only three games to go and [you expect me to] change my habits completely? You want the whole lineup?

"Diogo is not in team training yet, Conor Bradley is, Virgil wasn't. No, [he will] probably be part of team training today, so we will have to see what we can do there. That is it.

Klopp added: "[Improving confidence] is the challenge. It is always after the game immediately. The emotions settle step by step, either the good ones, you are not flying anymore if you won 4-0 or the other way around, you aren't down too much if you lost the game or missed the target.

"The reality check is the next situation and then in training getting confidence back and the flow back is for all human beings the biggest challenge in our life. On our best days we are great and others we are not, the only difference for footballers is they constantly have a camera in front of their face while they are in difficult spells.

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"We will try again and you don't [improve] by pointing the finger in all the time and saying 'that is not good enough, that is not good enough.' You try and offer things where they can develop naturally and that is what we try to do again, giving the boys the necessary information again.

"You only can enjoy football when they win and that means you have to defend them properly and build on that, that is it."