Mamadou Sakho’s Liverpool career has been handed a much-needed boost by Jurgen Klopp.
Sakho joined Crystal Palace on loan in the final hours of transfer deadline day after being forced to spend months in the Anfield wilderness.
Liverpool had hoped to offload the defender for £20 million in the window but only received loan offers from the Eagles and EFL Cup finalists Southampton.
But Klopp is refusing to discount Sakho’s prospective return to the first-team fold this summer once his time at Selhurst Park has drawn to a close.
He said: “This isn’t the moment for me to give advice to Mamadou Sakho.
“If I give him advice, I’ll do it personally and not on the TV. Who knows what happens in half a year? We’ve already felt what changed in the space of a month.
“I think he should concentrate on the job at Crystal Palace, we’ll concentrate on the job we’re doing here.
“In this moment he’s on loan and still has a contract at Liverpool. The loan is a solution for this moment.
“We can wait for new impressions and see what happens.”
The France international was confined to the Reds’ under-23 set up after being sent home from the club’s pre-season tour of America for disciplinary breaches.
Klopp’s patience was further tested by an early-morning social media outburst from Sakho just hours before his side’s 5-1 hammering of Hull City at Anfield.