Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says new Mohamed Salah injury scare shows need for rotation

Klopp revealed Salah felt his hamstring against Everton and had to be substituted

Mohamed Salah scored in the Merseyside derby before coming off (Getty)

Jürgen Klopp is set to continue with his policy of rotating his key attacking players, with Mohamed Salah potentially the next to drop out of his Liverpool FC starting line-up.

Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino were named among the substitutes for Sunday's Merseyside derby against Everton while Salah, who opened the scoring in the 1-1 draw at Anfield, was brought off after an hour.

Klopp revealed on Tuesday that while Coutinho and Firmino were fit enough to start the game, Salah was withdrawn after suffering a slight hamstring problem.

Though the Liverpool manager believes the substitution was made early enough to avoid a full-blown injury, he may decide against risking the Egyptian for West Bromwich Albion's visit to Anfield on Wednesday.

“I took Mo Salah off because he had a hamstring a little bit,” Klopp said at his pre-match press conference to preview the meeting with Alan Pardew's side. “Then everyone said: ‘How can you take him off?’ I do not go out and say: ‘Yeah, but he is close to being injured’.

“He is not at the moment, thank God,” Klopp added. “Hopefully we took him off early enough.”

On Coutinho and Firmino, the Liverpool manager denied suggestions that he was forced to rest the pair through injury, claiming to say so would “sound like an excuse”.

“I am advised but I take the decision 100 per cent,” he said. “Roberto and Phil could have played. Nobody told me leave them out, it was my decision.

“We have to do it [rotate the squad]. Seven games in 21 games before Everton and now six games in 18 days. It is exactly the same. We need the best quality we can have before each game. We cannot ignore the number of games.

“I don’t throw something [names] in the air and catch them and say: “Ooh! This week, they are in!” It is like it is. Today is Tuesday. We played on Sunday. And we play on Wednesday. Before that we played on Wednesday.

“These games are so important that if you drop one point in five games, then we talk about it like 'How can you make that?' Last year we played without Roberto and Phil at Stoke. They came on and made a difference. It’s like Mo Salah did at Stoke last month. Then everything is fine.

“This time [against Everton] we didn’t turn it. They got a penalty and I cannot change that. We conceded a goal. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that but that is the difference.”