Jurgen Klopp Talks Mo Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, More in Press Conference

Jurgen Klopp has admitted he was wrong to hype the return of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain when he played for Liverpool's under-23 side against Derby County after almost a year out. 

The Englishman looked to be nearing a return to full fitness from the knee injury he endured last April when he started for Liverpool's reserves on March 8.

However, he was substituted before half-time, and Klopp said ahead of Liverpool's crucial Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Sunday that he should not have made such a big deal about Oxlade-Chamberlain returning, per Sam Carroll of the Liverpool Echo:

"One of the biggest mistakes was being exciting at Ox being back. That put the focus on the Derby U23s game. Now we keep him in the shadow, he will train and when he's back properly I will speak about him then."

Klopp confirmed ahead of the Spurs clash that Liverpool have not suffered any further injury problems during the international break, and Joe Gomez, Xherdan Shaqiri and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all back in full training:

Meanwhile, the German manager explained the major boost of Mohamed Salah having not played at all over the international break after not being called up to the Egypt national team:

The PFA Player of the Year has been far from poor recently and looked particularly impressive in Liverpool's win at Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League on March 13, but he has been enduring a relatively barren run in front of goal.

Salah has followed up his 32-goal Premier League campaign last term by returning 17 goals so far in the English top flight in 2018-19.

However, he has not found the net in any competition since February 9, a run of seven goalless matches.

Liverpool and Klopp will hope Salah has rediscovered his scoring touch during his two-week break as Sunday's clash with Spurs could be crucial to their title ambitions.

The Reds are top of the Premier League table but have played a game more than second-placed Manchester City:

If they can take three points from the Spurs clash, though, and also beat Chelsea at home on April 14, they will potentially be in the driving seat to win a first league title since 1990.

After the meeting with the Blues, Liverpool will have no more matches left against top-six opposition, but City will be facing back-to-back league games against Spurs and Manchester United.