Liverpool vs Arsenal: Jordan Henderson ruled out as Daniel Sturridge suffers new injury blow

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson will remain absent for this weekend's Premier League visit of top-six rivals Arsenal, with Jurgen Klopp set to make a late decision on the fitness of Dejan Lovren ahead of the fifth vs fourth clash at Anfield.

Reds skipper Henderson missed three matches with a recurring heel problem at the turn of the year and was sidelined once again for a dismal 3-1 loss to managerless Leicester City on Monday night (27 February) after sustaining a bruised foot in training last week. Klopp subsequently revealed that he was unlikely to have recovered in time to face the Gunners, although appeared to play down the seriousness of the issue with scans reportedly dispelling fears over a potential broken metatarsal.

Defender Lovren, meanwhile, has sat out three successive games against Hull City, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester and also did not travel with his teammates for their warm-weather camp in La Manga due to a knee injury suffered in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on transfer deadline day.

The Croatian international played a limited part in training this week after visiting a specialist in Germany and Liverpool now face an anxious wait to determine whether or not he will be ready for Arsenal.

Long-serving midfielder Lucas Leiva hardly impressed alongside Joel Matip in a centre-back role at the King Power Stadium despite initially succeeding against Spurs with Ragnar Klavan missing through illness.

"For Jordan it will be too soon, for sure," Klopp told reporters at his pre-Arsenal press conference on Friday (3 March). "That will take time. Dejan, we will see. He [did] part of team training the day before yesterday, and then yesterday he was in full team training.

"Now we have to see how he reacts on this. He will be involved in training again, if nobody tells me anything different. Then we have to make a decision. It's not the longest, he was out for pretty much four weeks, [he has been] training for three days and in the end I have to make a decision. I am not sure about it [at the moment]."

Daniel Sturridge has been in the news of late, with Klopp revealing that his future will be reviewed during the summer. The injury-plagued England striker has been limited to a peripheral role on Merseyside so far this season, starting just five top-flight games in total.

After flying home from La Manga early and not featuring at Leicester due to a viral infection, he will now miss more time due to a fresh hip complaint.

"Daniel was ill – really, really ill," Klopp added. "Now he has a strain in his hip muscle. It happened in the rehab session. It's not the biggest one, it's very small, but it keeps him out of normal training for probably another week. In this week he can train, but not in team training."