Sadio Mane to miss Liverpool trip to Hong Kong despite recovering well from knee surgery

The Senegal international sustained a meniscus injury April’s Merseyside derby

Sadio Mané scored 13 Premier League goals in his debut season at Liverpool (Getty)

Sadio Mané will not travel with Liverpool on their pre-season trip to Hong Kong for the Premier League Asia Trophy.

The Senegal international is continuing his recovery from knee surgery after he sustained a meniscus injury in April’s 3-1 Merseyside derby win over Everton at Anfield.

Mané played no part in the rest of Liverpool’s campaign and, having only started running with his team-mates again on Tuesday, he is set to spend the following weeks at Melwood building up his fitness.

Klopp confirmed that the 25-year-old would play no part in Asia, telling Liverpool’s official website: “He is really, really good. He is close; he is closing on coming back to team training.

“In this moment we think it will be when we are in Asia, so then it makes no sense to take him to Asia because he needs to then do the first steps in kind of team training.

“We will see how we can do it; maybe [some of] the U23s will be here, so when he can start this [training] then we can use this opportunity, but we have to wait.

“On Tuesday morning he was part of the running, so he is first-team training if you want and that looked really good.

“I think he is getting better, but it is how it is after a long time - you need to build a little bit of muscle again in the quad and thigh, which is important.

“There is no risk with him because he is a naturally-fit boy and in the moment when he can start to be a real part of the sessions, he will then immediately be fit again.

“We have not all the time in the world, but we have time and we will use it.”

Manè scored 13 Premier League goals last season, his debut campaign on Merseyside following a £34m move from Southampton.