£3m Liverpool player who Jurgen Klopp thinks is 'fantastic' could make first appearance in 23 months

Jurgen Klopp has suggested that Kaide Gordon could be in line to start for Liverpool against Union SG.

The Reds' final Europa League Group E match in Belgium is a dead rubber, with the visitors already into the knockout stage. As a result, Klopp has left Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson Becker on Merseyside and changes are set to be made.

Gordon is part of Liverpool's 23-man squad against Union. The winger made four appearances for the Reds in the 2021-22 season when just 17. That included a goal in an FA Cup third-round win over Shrewsbury, a Premier League debut and a start against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg victory against Arsenal.

However, Gordon was ruled out of the entire 2022-23 with a pelvic issue. He's made a handful of outings for the under-21s this term and twice featured on the bench for Klopp's side. Now the highly-rated 19-year-old could be handed a first-team outing for the first time in almost two years. And with the January transfer window approaching, Klopp is adamant the former Derby County youngster - signed for up to £3 million - will not be heading out on loan.

So we were really unlucky with some of our big, big prospects. We had that problem that they were a little bit too good already for the physical status, let me say it like that. So they were that good that we thought they could help us already and everybody went in the right direction and then the body said no, stop. And that happened to Kaide unfortunately two or three times, it was a really long time out. And that's now really cool as well – from the first day back in training, we all realised immediately, 'Ah, that's what we missed, that's what we had already.'

"So nothing happened really, still a fantastic player, still incredibly young and he is now again around the first team. We try to give him as much game time as possible with the U21s. You know that, I'm really a believer in that we need a strong U21s, they don't need to be always at the same time on loan everywhere. There are different ways to develop talents. And especially after long injuries, you should not think immediately, 'Now he's fit again and send him out.' We have a really good group there together of young boys and some of them we will see tomorrow, that's clear."