Liverpool handed major Alexander Isak boost after Arne Slot shares update on rehabilitation | OneFootball

Alexander Isak is back in training for Liverpool with Arne Slot believing the £125m forward will be fit to play around the end of March or start of April.

The British record signing has been out since December with a broken leg he suffered while scoring just his third Liverpool goal in the victory at Tottenham but Slot feels Liverpool can still see the best of Isak this season.

Now, after undergoing ankle surgery, he is on the comeback trail, while in a race against time to be available for Sweden’s World Cup play-off against Ukraine on 26 March.

Slot said: “Alex has been on the pitch, not with his football boots but with his running shoes for the first time this week.

“It’s nice for him to go on the pitch, it’s nice for us to see him here because there is still enough work to be done but you know as a player, you arrive in the final stages of your rehab. As long as you’re in the gym and not the pitch, that’s not the nicest part.

“The next step is doing work with the ball, which every player likes most. Then the next step is to come into the group and then it takes a while before you’re ready to play. But it’s nice that rehab goes well; that’s a compliment to him and our medical staff.

“I think we all know the moment you go onto the pitch it doesn’t take three months anymore but these final stages of rehab can also make things change. In the gym you can hardly do too much but at this stage you constantly have to tick the next box and the next box. Let’s not put a timescale on it but it is clear that he will be available - if things go as planned - this season.”

Slot is trying to be cautious about when Isak will return, aware that he has suffered two injuries since joining Liverpool, including a groin problem, and that he was not fully fit when he arrived from Newcastle, after missing pre-season training. Isak has only made 17 appearances for Liverpool.

Alexander Isak of Liverpool has been hit by injury in his debut campaign for the Reds (Getty Images)

Slot added: “If a player has had four or five months of only individual training, we cannot expect he is up to speed straight away. So unfortunately for him and us, we haven’t used the best Alex yet but this club and our fans will hopefully we the best Alex this season but, for sure, in the upcoming years.

“It will be around that period of time; end of March, start of April, where he is hopefully back with the group. When you are back with the group that is not to say you are ready to play, let alone start a game a game of football because again he’s been out for months and the last time he was out for months we could all see it took him a while before he was the player who we signed from Newcastle.”