Calvin Ramsay to miss rest of the season with knee injury as Liverpool provide pre-Newcastle injury update

Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Calvin Ramsay will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing knee surgery.

The Scot revealed on social media earlier this week that he had gone under the knife to correct a meniscus issue.

The news represents a further setback for a player who has only managed two appearances in his debut season at Anfield as a result of a back injury detected upon his arrival from Aberdeen.

But Klopp is hopeful that, by opting for surgery on this new problem now, Ramsay will give himself a better chance of impressing going forward.

He said: "Calvin arrived here, had a back problem I've never heard of before. When you are in the growing process it can happen but he played all the games, didn't really feel anything, came here and we made a proper check and there was something.

"He had no real pain or whatever but was not allowed to train for a long period because otherwise for a young person who is still growing it can create real problems in the long term so there was no chance.

"We spoke when it was clear he had the new injury, I asked him: 'How often have you been your absolute best?' And he said not often.

"Now we have to use that because we couldn't. You want to adapt to a new thing but you didn't train for four months it's really tricky.

"Now he has an injury and that's his season over, even if he could come back a bit earlier it would make no sense. Now it's [time] to build the boy up physically and have a new start and we go again rather than play catch-up with him all the time.

"He's a great talent, a real talent who had the most unlucky start possible. But in the end if he finishes his career at 36/37, if he can say then that the most difficult year was the first or second, that's absolutely okay.

"All the others were better because we made the right decision in the first two so that's what we try to do now."

Mercifully, Ramsay is the only new absentee for Liverpool, with the squad otherwise unchanged from Monday's win over Everton.

Klopp added: "Same squad possible, nothing happened that anyone could come back since then. Ibou [Konate] not yet, Luis [Diaz] not yet, but that's it pretty much, nothing happened on the injury side.

"Thiago [Alcantara] not available, Calvin had surgery not available but that's it."

The German also revealed that Virgil van Dijk should be fit to start after returning to the bench for the Merseyside derby.

He continued: "I think so. Yesterday, he looked absolutely ready, today I think he will look the same. Then we make a decision."