Liverpool star admits he is 'not 100 per cent' and gives fitness update ahead of Nottingham Forest clash

Ibrahima Konate has provided an update on his Liverpool fitness after spending more than a month on the sidelines.

The centre-back has been in imperious form for the Reds in their pursuit of the Premier League title this season. He has formed a magnificent partnership with Virgil van Dijk, with the pair earning rave reviews.

However, Konate suffered a blow when he sustained a knee injury at the end of a 2-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League at the end of November. It led to the France international missing a total of eight matches. However, he made a return to action in a 1-1 draw against Manchester United earlier this month. Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has managed Konate’s fitness since, although he is expected to start when the league leaders face third-placed Nottingham Forest in a huge showdown at the City Ground on Tuesday night.

After Joe Gomez picked up a hamstring issue in the thrashing of West Ham before the new year, Konate revealed that motivated to come back for the United game. But the ex-Red Bull Leizpig defender did admitted he’s still not feeling 100 per cent. Speaking to Liverpool’s club website, he said: “I feel good, not 100 per cent, but I just worked on it to come back and to fix my knee because I knew a great game was coming. And when I saw the injury of Joe Gomez – I hope he will come back very quick because he's a very important player for us – I just tried to do everything to come back quicker because the game was so important and I wanted to play against Man United. Now we are here to come back 100 per cent.

“This was the worst for me! [watching from the sidelined] Sometimes I didn't want to watch [the] game but I have to. When I am on the bench behind the [substitutes'] bench, my leg is just shaking because I really want to be on the pitch with the boys. But this sometimes happens and we just have to be patient. To be on the pitch, you have the pressure, you have some stress, but for a football player I think this feeling is unbelievable.”

Forest are the only team to beat Liverpool in the Premier League this season as they earned a 1-0 win at Anfield last September. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have surprised everyone as they are currently on track for Champions League qualification. Konate knows the Reds are in for a stern test.

He added: “Everyone knows how it is to play there. Even last season when we played there, we won in the last minute. The game was tough and they had a great team, especially this season. I think they surprised a lot of teams and especially us because we lost that first game. But now we go there and we know what we want to do. We have to work very hard because we know this will be a tough game. We just have to be calm, be patient and to think game by game. Then the game will start and after we will think about the next game.”