Jurgen Klopp has revealed that influential midfielder Philippe Coutinho could make his return to the Liverpool side in Wednesday's EFL Cup semi-final meeting with Southampton.

The Brazil international has been absent from the Reds' ranks since the end of November after damaging his ankle in the Premier League win over Sunderland.

Coutinho was back in training last week, however, and Klopp expects to have the 24-year-old - who registered six goals and five assists prior to his layoff - back in his plans for the trip to St Mary's this week.

"I think Phil is fit enough for being part of the squad," he told reporters. "That means it could be minutes, how much I don't know. It depends on the game, of course. He is on a very good way.

"It was six or seven weeks, something like this, so that's long. And so he needs minutes in training, especially, but then of course as soon as possible minutes in games.

"We will see how we do it, there [has been] no final decision made until now. I think [today] was the third complete session he did with the team, tomorrow again would be the fourth. It's not that many, but for being in the squad, I think it's enough. And then we will see."

Klopp also confirmed that James Milner and Jordan Henderson will be back in contention after missing the FA Cup third-round stalemate with Plymouth Argyle at the weekend, but Joel Matip is still a few days away from a return to full training.