Adam Lallana is back in Liverpool training but is unlikely to play any part against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.
The midfielder missed the FA Cup defeat at home to West Bromwich Albion and subsequent Premier League victory at Huddersfield Town with a minor issue stemming from his long-term thigh injury.
Lallana missed the first three months of the campaign with a problem picked up in pre-season and has started just twice in all competitions as he continues to recover and find full sharpness.
But he has since overcome his recent setback and returned to train alongside his Liverpool team-mates at Melwood on Friday - though Jürgen Klopp declared in his pre-Spurs press conference that he needs time to train before he returns to the match-day squad.
Lallana won't be out "long" insists Reds boss
The German told reporters that "in an ideal world" the England international will "not be involved for the weekend" in their crucial top-four clash with the North London side.
The manager explained: "Because, as well all know, there are really different stages - being fit, able to train and then being match fit."
Klopp said that Lallana was "not out too long" with the small re-occurrence of his muscle injury and had "the longest pre-season" of any of the squad due to his absence so will return in good shape.
"It will not be long," vowed Klopp when asked about when the 28-year-old will be back in full flow.
He continued: "If nobody is injured or whatever, it's better for Adam that he can train for the next 10 days until the Southampton game. Then, he should be ready for sure."
Klopp unsure of rotation against Spurs
Having only last played on Tuesday night, though their clash with Huddersfield was a relative stroll as they claimed a comfortable and dominant 3-0 win, Klopp refused to confirm or deny whether he will make widespread changes against Spurs.
Liverpool moved into third courtesy of Chelsea's mid-week defeat to Bournemouth and could move five points ahead of Mauricio Pochettino's men with victory at Anfield this weekend.
Klopp admitted that he has "no clue in the moment" whether he will "rotate a lot or not" against Spurs, one of three teams to beat them in the league this term with a heavy 4-1 thrashing back in September.
"What I want to see on the pitch, I know," Klopp said. "Who it will be to start doing it exactly, I don't know, because in this part of the season we have to wait all the time for [the opinions of] our medical department."
The Reds boss revealed that it is "always like this" but added that they have "a few nice options" where they "could make changes or not."
Klopp added: "We will see. The last game was good. If you go back to the Man City game, it was a different line-up. We will see what we do. There is no reason to tell it [the line-up] now, not to the boys, not Tottenham, nobody."