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Jurgen Klopp has suggested Liverpool centre-back Joel Matip could be back in action again this year.

There were fears Matip could be out for a month after he suffered a thigh injury that ruled him out of Saturday's 5-1 Premier League triumph at Brighton and Hove Albion.

The Cameroon defender will definitely remain sidelined for Wednesday's Champions League decider against Spartak Moscow at Anfield and will almost certainly miss the Merseyside derby four days later.

However, Klopp is refusing to rule Matip out for the whole of the hectic festive schedule.

“He has hurt his muscle,” said the Reds boss. “I don't know how long exactly he'll be out, but he's definitely not playing Wednesday.

“A month? No, I don't think so. But as always, it's possible. We have to wait.

“But it's possible that it will be shorter. We will see.”

With Matip absent and Joe Gomez missing with the illness that kept Ragnar Klavan on the bench, Dejan Lovren was Liverpool's only available centre-back at Brighton.

(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

It prompted Klopp to field a back three containing midfielders Emre Can and Gini Wijnaldum.

“Emre needs to do that, like Gini can do that,” he said. “They have to do it, we don't have anybody else.

“I enjoyed it. It was like 'wow, interesting'. We had 20 minutes in training and then we spoke for a little bit in the team meeting before the game again about it.

“But it's not long. It was clear it wouldn't be perfect, but the boys were ready to cope with the difficulties of the new system.

“They did really well.”