There were nine Premier League manager press conferences held on Thursday ahead of the start of the 2019/20 campaign.
The headline team news came from Liverpool, where Jurgen Klopp provided fairly positive news on Sadio Mane (£11.5m) ahead of Friday’s encounter with Norwich City.
Klopp said:
Looks fit. Yesterday was his first session with the team. Yesterday now with the team first time, looks absolutely OK, in good spirits. Yes he’s an option, but we will see.
The Reds’ boss said of James Milner (£5.5m):
Millie trained yesterday with the team, 100%. He will be fine.
The Reds opponents have problems at centre-half, with stoppers Christoph Zimmermann and Timm Klose (£4.5m) sidelined for Gameweek 1.
Defensive midfielders Alex Tettey and Ibrahim Amadou (both £4.5m) are also unavailable for tomorrow’s encounter.
On the subject of newly promoted clubs, Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder revealed a clean bill of health at today’s presser.
Dean Smith only ruled out James Chester (£4.5m), meanwhile, as Villa prepare to take on Spurs.
Robbie Brady (£5.5m) looks set to miss out for Burnley against Southampton, whose manager Ralph Hasenhuttl didn’t disclose any injury concerns.
Gerard Deulofeu (£6.5m) was passed fit by Javi Gracia but Danny Welbeck (£6.0m) won’t be ready to feature against Brighton.
The Seagulls will be without Jose Izquierdo (£5.5m) and Yves Bissouma (£5.0m).
Mark Noble (£5.0m) hasn’t recovered from a dead leg in time to face Manchester City but Lukasz Fabianski (£5.0m) is fit to face the reigning champions.
We’ll have updates on Friday’s 11 press conferences in advance of the 19:00 BST deadline.
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