Jurgen Klopp plays down Ryan Gravenberch injury fears after LASK win
- Gravenberch joined Liverpool from Bayern Munich in the summer
- Midfielder limped off against LASK with 15 minutes to go
- Jurgen Klopp is not concerned by the injury
By Tom Gott
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed midfielder Ryan Gravenberch was suffering from cramp as he limped off the field towards the end of Thursday's victory over LASK.
In what was his first start for the club since joining from Bayern Munich, Gravenberch enjoyed a thoroughly impressive performance. The Dutch midfielder grabbed the assist for Luis Diaz's second goal but limped off with 15 minutes to go in the 3-1 win.
The sight of Gravenberch in discomfort as he left the pitch had some fans concerned but Klopp has now put their fears to bed.
"[He was] very good, he told me he had cramp so that makes sense," Klopp confirmed to TNT Sports after the game.
"It was his first start for a while I think and he did really well. For a long time he was the best player on the pitch and in the first-half frustration grew a little bit and you saw him getting lost a little bit, you know, 'where is he?'.
"But that's normal, these things happen but he stayed in the game as long as he could and had really good moments, set up a good goal for Luis Diaz and, for not knowing a lot about his teammates, it looked pretty tuned."
After the game, Gravenberch revealed a message he had received from Klopp in the build-up to the game which helped bring out his best.
"Yesterday after training he came to me and said to me [to] feel free, you know, you can do whatever you want, of course you have to do your things, but he just said feel free and show yourself and the Ryan you are," the midfielder said.
On Liverpool's performance, Gravenberch added: "We didn't start so well, but we had the mentality and we turned it around again, so I was very happy with the game.
"For myself, it was good but also sloppy sometimes, so I have to work on that and the rest was OK."