Cody Gakpo says he was “a little bit unlucky” with the ankle injury that ruled him out against Wolves and Aston Villa, hoping he won’t miss any more games.
Gakpo picked up a knock during the 2-2 draw with Everton earlier in February, forcing him to be taken off and seeing him miss the next two games.
But the Dutchman was passed fit to return to the squad for Sunday’s 2-0 win at Man City and, after coming off the bench, could be in contention to start against Newcastle.
That would be a big boost to Arne Slot despite the success of his no-striker system at the weekend, with it likely that Gakpo returns on the left flank with either Luis Diaz or Diogo Jota up front.
Speaking to the club’s official website before the visit of Newcastle, Gakpo praised Liverpool’s medical department for his quick recovery and outlined his hope to avoid any further layoffs.
“[It was] a little bit unlucky in the Everton game. But yeah, we did everything, the medical staff and myself obviously, to come back as quick as possible,” he said.
“[I’m] very happy that I can be back and hopefully now I don’t miss any games anymore.”
Prior to his injury Gakpo had made the matchday squad for every game bar those in the FA Cup, when Slot left most of his regular starters out entirely.
Even after sitting out two fixtures and playing just 11 minutes against Man City, the winger is still among the head coach’s 11 most-used players.
Caution over the recovery of an attacker who has scored 16 goals in 37 games – second only to Mohamed Salah in the Liverpool squad – is warranted as Slot would hate to lose Gakpo for an extended period.
As the No. 18 says the hope now will be that this pays off with a clean record between now and the end of the season, with at least 14 games left to play and three trophies to fight for.
“The closer you come to the end the more hunger you get to really achieve something as a group,” Gakpo said.
“Obviously last season we were in a good position as well and then unfortunately it didn’t work out how we wanted to.
“But this year we are together with the same team so we know what we can do better and we will do better.
“That’s what you can see and like you said, we are not trying to slow down, we just try to keep going [and] keep going.”
