Liverpool defender Joel Matip out of Brighton trip as Jurgen Klopp hopes for Ragnar Klavan return

Jurgen Klopp is sweating on Ragnar Klavan's availability for the Premier League clash with Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday (2 December) with fellow Liverpool central defender Joel Matip set to miss the trip to the Amex Stadium through injury.

Klavan had started in all of Liverpool's six matches across all competitions since a harrowing defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in October, but was absent from the 3-0 victory at Stoke City on Wednesday night due to illness.

The Estonian international missed training at Melwood yesterday, although Klopp is hoping he will have recovered to face Brighton after revealing that the injury-prone Matip is very likely to be sidelined by a fresh muscle issue suffered in the Potteries.

Were he to remain absent, then it seems likely that versatile right-back Joe Gomez would be called upon to shift inside and partner the much-maligned Dejan Lovren in the heart of defence.

Former long-term absentee Adam Lallana was also left out against Stoke as a precautionary measure after experiencing a minor setback following his return against Chelsea last weekend and his manager was keen to stress that he is still short of match fitness.

Nathaniel Clyne (back) and Adam Bogdan (knee) both continue to be sidelined, meanwhile.

"It looks like Joel Matip is out," Klopp told reporters at a pre-Brighton press conference on Friday. "After the game he had a problem, he felt something muscle-wise. We have to make the final assessment but it doesn't look like he is available for tomorrow. That's pretty much all.

"Adam Lallana is still building up his fitness; Ragnar Klavan was ill but hopefully he is not anymore, especially when you think about Joel Matip's situation. It's not that we have a big choice to make in defence, so that's the situation.

"We had a few knocks how it is after a game, and it is the shorter part of the week with Wednesday and Saturday [games]. It's not a long time to recover from different things. Final decisions will be made after the session at three o'clock [today]."

Klopp, who now seems to have changed his mind on referee Martin Atkinson's controversial decision not to show goalkeeper Simon Mignolet a red card that so irked Mark Hughes, was also quizzed on his rotational policy after making six changes at Stoke, stating that "every player has to show me every day how much they want to be involved".

He also claimed to be unsurprised by the electric form of influential summer signing Mohamed Salah, who took his tally of goals across all competitions to 17 in just 21 appearances after coming off the bench to net another brace in midweek. However, he was in no mood to discuss any premature player of the season nomination or comparisons with former Anfield favourite Luis Suarez, now at Barcelona.

"I'm not interested in comparison," he said. "Suarez was a great player for Liverpool. And I have great respect for him. But that's a story for a paper."