Dejan Lovren faces a race against time for Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Bayern Munich.
The Croatia international has not featured for the Reds since picking up a hamstring injury in the FA Cup defeat to Wolves on January 7.
Jurgen Klopp expected that Lovren would be back in contention ahead of next week’s last 16 showdown with the reigning Bundesliga champions.
But the Liverpool manager now admits that initial forecast is uncertain with the centre-back left behind for this week’s warm weather training camp in Marbella.
“Dejan is not here and Joe [Gomez] is not here,” said Klopp.
“That’s never a good sign, I would say, but we will try everything to make Dejan available for Munich. It will be a tight race.
“For him, it makes sense in the moment to be in another place to do what he has to do. It wouldn’t have helped if he was here, so we will try everything – that’s clear.”
Should Lovren lose his fitness battle, Liverpool will have only one established central defender available when they prepare to welcome Bayern on February 19.
In addition to the injuries to the 29-year-old and Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk is ruled out of the first leg tie after picking up three bookings in the group stages.
Midfielder Fabinho is expected to partner Joel Matiin in defence if Lovren remains unavailable to start the game against Niko Kovac’s side at Anfield.