Dejan Lovren recovering from eye injury as Emre Can returns to training ahead of Chelsea clash

Dejan Lovren's chances of returning to the Liverpool team for Friday's (16 September) showdown with Chelsea look to be improving after his latest social media post.

Lovren, 27, missed last Saturday's 4-1 victory over champions Leicester City, posting a picture on Instagram before the match showing his heavily bruised and swollen left eye picked up in a training ground collision on Friday.

The Croatia international is on the mend, however, posting another image on Tuesday titled: "Looking much better" with the swelling significantly reduced.

There was more good news for Jurgen Klopp with Emre Can also back in training following his injury lay-off. The Germany international picked up an ankle injury in his side's EFL Cup victory over Burton Albion three weeks ago, missing the 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur and sitting out the international break.

But the 22-year-old was pictured in training on Tuesday afternoon. A photograph later posted on Liverpool's official website, showed him joining in with the rest of the squad ahead of the visit to Antonio Conte's Chelsea on Friday evening.

While the Blues will be without captain John Terry, who suffered an ankle injury in the 2-2 draw with Swansea City on Sunday, Liverpool still have their own concerns at centre-half. Klopp will be hopeful of Lovren making a full recovery in time having had to deploy Lucas Leiva at centre-half against Leicester.

Ragnar Klavan, a summer signing from Mainz, also missed the win over the Foxes due to a knee injury while Mamadou Sakho, who was also pictured in training on Tuesday, has not played for the Reds since April following a ban for a failed drugs test and a subsequent ankle injury picked up during pre-season.

Liverpool currently sit sixth in the Premier League table having endured a somewhat mixed start to the season. After kicking off with a thrilling 4-3 away victory to Arsenal, they were brought crashing back to earth at Burnley where they suffered a 2-0 defeat to the newly promoted side. A credible 1-1 draw away to Tottenham and Saturday's comfortable win over the champions leave Klopp's side in good form ahead of the visit to Stamford Bridge.