There is a Liverpool midfielder who leads every other in terms of key passes, expected goals, and expected assists per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season.

He has also averaged more shots on goal per game from that position than all but one of his colleagues whenever he has played.

And yet, he rarely does.

We are talking, of course, about Naby Keita, a man whose Anfield career thus far has largely been defined by frustration, despite it coinciding with Champions League success and an increasingly inevitable Premier League title win.

Since arriving from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2018, the Guinean has both struggled to stay fit, and then to dislodge the players performing so well ahead of him.

This time, however, an injury blow has actually worked in his favour, providing an opportunity to shine rather than denying one.

Jurgen Klopp confirmed on Friday that his captain, Jordan Henderson, is facing up to three weeks on the sidelines as a result of a hamstring injury.

It is a blow the German could have done without, but one that offered an insight into the high esteem in which he holds his alternative options in the centre of the park.

He revealed as much in saying: “Hendo is exceptionally important, football-wise and for some other reasons too. We still have options, and that’s good.

“There’s a chance for all of them, but there would have been a chance anyway because Hendo wouldn’t have played all the games from now until the end of the season.

“It’s a position where we can react, so we will react.”

Clearly, Keita’s profile and the encouraging nature of his previous outings make him the frontrunner to take Henderson’s place.

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But the hope is that the 25-year-old will do more than simply fill in for his absent skipper, perhaps by producing the sort of performances that prompted his £52m signing in the first place.

What makes Keita such an intriguing player is the knowledge that he can do so much more - a sentiment even Klopp couldn’t help but buy into following a run of three goals in as many games prior to the turn of the year.

“Naby is a player who can score goals,” the manager said after his No.8 made it three on the bounce by netting against Monterrey in the Club World Cup.

“It is not the highest number of games he’s played for us, but he’s scored a lot of goals already, important goals as well.

“[It’s] absolutely brilliant how he did that – and there is so much more to come.

“Maybe if you know Naby a bit longer you would say, ‘OK, that looked really good but there is still some space’. That’s absolutely brilliant news for us.”

Inevitably, that fine run of form was stopped dead in its tracks just three games later, as Keita pulled his groin warming up ahead of a game against Sheffield United for which he had been named in the starting XI.

Avoiding such rotten luck this time around will be crucial, not least because Henderson’s injury looks likely to put him out of Liverpool’s Champions League last-16 second leg meeting with Atletico Madrid at Anfield.

After the Reds failed to register a shot on target in suffering a 1-0 first-leg defeat on Tuesday evening, social media was awash with suggestions that Keita’s vision would have made all the difference to a toothless engine room.

Providing his upcoming auditions go to plan, the midfielder will at least have the chance to prove that assertion right in three weeks’ time.

The alternative does not bear thinking about; another false dawn would likely mark the beginning of the end for a Liverpool career that has yet to get going.