Liverpool are expected to remain without Ibrahima Konate for the second leg of their Europa League last-16 tie against Sparta Prague on Thursday night.

The Frenchman suffered a hamstring injury in last week's 5-1 first-leg success - being taken off early in the second half - and he was unavailable for Sunday's 1-1 draw with Manchester City in the Premier League.

A comeback on Thursday is considered unlikely, but Jurgen Klopp is optimistic that he will be OK to feature in the weekend's FA Cup quarter-final battle with Manchester United.

Konate is one of nine definite absentees for the hosts, who cannot call upon Ben Doak (knee), Joel Matip (knee), Stefan Bajcetic (calf), Diogo Jota (knee), Curtis Jones (shin), Alisson Becker (thigh), Trent Alexander-Arnold (knee) or Thiago Alcantara (muscle) either, but ankle victim Ryan Gravenberch trained on Wednesday and might be available.

Jayden Danns would no doubt be in contention to start the second leg, but the teenager is recovering from a concussion, so Cody Gakpo ought to shoulder the attacking burden down the middle.

With Klopp still being extremely cautious over Mohamed Salah's fitness, Harvey Elliott should once again take up right-wing duties, and Lewis Koumas is a contender to take Luis Diaz's spot on the opposite side.

The time is also nigh for Bobby Clark and James McConnell to start together in midfield, where they could be joined by Dominik Szoboszlai, who was taken off just after the hour mark against Man City.

A lack of defensive options means that there should be no respite for Caoimhin Kelleher, Conor Bradley, Virgil van Dijk or Jarell Quansah, but Kostas Tsimikas is in line to take Joe Gomez's spot.

Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Kelleher; Bradley, Quansah, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Szoboszlai, McConnell, Clark; Elliott, Gakpo, Koumas