Sadio Mane could make a surprise comeback in Liverpool’s trip to West Ham.
Mane has been sidelined for the past four weeks with a hamstring injury picked up while on international duty with Senegal last month.
The Reds originally anticipated that the influential winger would not return from the setback until late November at the earliest.
However Jurgen Klopp revealed on Friday that Mane is being considered for a potential cameo role in this weekend’s game at the London Stadium.
He said: “Sadio looked really, really good. We will see what we do with that.
“Yesterday it looked like he is ready [to play] for at least 20-25 minutes.
“But we have to wait to see how his body reacts to the session because for him it was pretty intense; not because it was intense but because it was his first football session for a long time.
“He did really well, he obviously didn’t miss his abilities or skills during the injury break, so that’s good.”
Senegal have called up Mane for their World Cup qualifying double header with South Africa despite only returning to first-team training on Thursday.
But Klopp believes that his side could benefit from the 25-year-old’s participation in the forthcoming international break.
“We cannot ignore the situation of Senegal and say we don’t care if they play in the World Cup. It is not right and not nice,” added the Liverpool manager.
“We are trying to get in touch with the Senegal FA. Sadio is not injured anymore, is he 100 percent fit? That’s different.
“He’s in a good way and yesterday he looked really good.
“We have to first think about what we do because when you see Sadio, it’s like, ‘okay, maybe we can use him’ – and it’s the same for Senegal.
“If he goes there – he has to go there – then he has a few days of training.
“If they get the point they need [to qualify], maybe we can get in touch with them again and ask if it’s necessary for him to play the second game and then he could come back.
“That would be the ideal situation, but we can’t decide that – FIFA doesn’t give the clubs the opportunity to decide when they play for their countries.
“There are clear rules and we respect them. In this specific case, if he goes it would be good for his rhythm.”