MatchLiverpool v West Ham United: Carabao Cup team news

The Dutch midfielder was forced off during the second half of Sunday’s goalless draw with Manchester United due to discomfort in his hamstring, but the Reds were hopeful he would be able to resume training on Tuesday.

“He had a scan and it’s only DOMS, which is fatigue, so that’s a really good thing,” assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders explained ahead of the game.

“Let’s see where he is. We have to be careful of course because that’s a sign. So that’s a good one.”

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Both Alexis Mac Allister and Diogo Jota are continuing their respective recoveries from injury, with neither expected to feature against West Ham.

“Alexis is progressing well,” said Lijnders. “He doesn’t have pain anymore, which is a good thing. It was worse than we first thought, but he is progressing well, no pain. Let’s see if we can progress him.”

He added: “Diogo is doing ball work on the pitch so that is getting closer and closer. But always with hamstring injuries you have to be careful, we always say when they come back give them another two or three days for sure.”

Long-term absentees Andy Robertson, Joel Matip, Stefan Bajcetic and Thiago Alcantara remain sidelined, while teenage winger Ben Doak will require surgery on a knee injury picked up playing for the U21s against Chelsea on Sunday.

“That’s not a good one,” said Lijnders of Doak. “He tore his lateral meniscus, which needs surgery. That one will take [a] longer time.”

Lijnders also confirmed Caoimhin Kelleher will start in goal versus David Moyes’ Hammers, with further rotation possible too.

“A football player with confidence or without confidence is a different player,” he said. “A football player with rhythm or without rhythm is a different player. And a player who trains well or doesn’t train well is a different player.

“These three things make a player, in my opinion. The consistency, the training and the confidence. What we see with Caoimh is he is finding more rhythm, because he’s playing more games.

“He is growing. You see this, and that’s what we wanted. We wanted to give him more opportunities, more games. He was already decisive in this competition before, and hopefully he can be again and take his chance.”

Lijnders added: “We have this ambition to go into a semi-final. We feel that it’s needed for this team to develop. To play finals early in the season, it grows the team. It’s something you look forward to.

“And it’s a competition we give opportunities in. We will line up a strong team that hopefully can compete, and hopefully we can win the game.”

West Ham, meanwhile, are without striker Michail Antonio as he continues his recovery from a setback sustained on international duty with Jamaica.

Goalkeeper Alphonse Areola has recovered from a wrist injury enough to take a place in the matchday squad, with the Frenchman on the bench for Sunday’s 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Regarding other fitness news, Hammers first-team coach Billy McKinlay told the media on Tuesday: “We’ll know better this morning, obviously the game was only Sunday, 36 hours ago. So we’ll have a better idea this morning after training.

“There’s still a little bit of illness lingering about the camp so we’ll just make sure everybody is checked today and we’ll have a better idea after training.”

He added: “We have confidence [within the squad], I think we’ve had a decent run over the last eight or nine games, the last two games in particular we have had some good performances.

“We followed up [a 2-0 win over] Freiburg with obviously a good performance and win against Wolves, which is always a tough game. We’re in a good place and getting ready for a busy period.”

Last match

Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United (December 17): Alisson, Endo, Van Dijk, Konate, Diaz, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Salah, Tsimikas, Gravenberch, Alexander-Arnold.

West Ham 3-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (December 17): Fabianski, Coufal, Zouma, Aguerd, Emerson, Soucek, Alvarez, Kudus, Ward-Prowse, Paqueta, Bowen.