Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Philippe Coutinho to miss Everton but Manchester City return possible

Liverpool will be without Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah for Friday's (4 January) FA Cup fourth round clash with Everton but Jurgen Klopp expects both to be ready for the Premier League clash with Manchester City.

Coutinho, who is reportedly pushing to complete a move to Barcelona this month, missed his side's New Year's Day victory over Burnley with a thigh injury and has been undergoing treatment at the club's facilities at Melwood this week. Salah also missed the win at Turf Moor due to a groin injury with both players this week rated as doubts for the second Merseyside derby of the season at Anfield.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday [4 January], Klopp confirmed the key duo will not be involved against the Toffees but expects to have them both available again for his side's next match – the visit of Pep Guardiola's undefeated City side on Sunday 14 January.

The Reds boss is also still to decide whether new signing Virgil van Dijk will make his debut against Sam Allardyce's side.

"Mo and Phil are not available. It is not possible for them," Klopp said. "With Virgil, we have to see. I have to make a decision for this game. We will see what we do with him. Its clear centre-half is a position that needs to be tuned. Of course I imagine everyone is desperate to see him but there is no rush, it is more important how many good games he has for us rather than how many."

Klopp, who insists he will name a strong XI against Everton, stressed Coutinho and Salah's injuries are not "big", but did admit he fear the worst when learning of their knocks.

"Mo and Phil are not big injuries, it's only a week," the Liverpool boss added. "We were quite lucky, when I heard about the diagnosis and when they are back, you think, phew, that was lucky. Usually in this period of time when you get an injury, you are out for four or five weeks it is like 20 games. But now we talk about 2 games. Nobody wants that, especially with our cup game, nobody wants that but we cannot change that of course but so far it is okay."

Klopp also expects Jordan Henderson and Alberto Moreno to return to light training following the Everton match. "They are really on the way back, after Everton they can be part of parts of team training, so we will see what that means for the city game, but they are really on a good way."