Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain return from long-term injury is on track.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was taken off after 40 minutes of the match against Derby U23s on Friday as a precautionary measure and Liverpool immediately assessed the muscle injury.

Klopp has now issued an update on the progress of the former Arsenal playmaker, insisting that Oxlade-Chamberlain is indeed fine despite the scare.

He told Liverpool's website: “It's not really surprising, it's normal. The good news is the knee is perfect – nothing happened, that was our only concern.

“Football games are different to football training, that's why he felt the muscle a little bit, and thank God we were smart enough to take him off, even if it was only five minutes earlier than we thought [before the game]. That made absolute sense. Nothing else happened."

Klopp admits the player needs time.

“We always said he needs time. Maybe I'm a bit guilty for being too excited about it; if nobody asked me I wouldn't start talking about Ox, to be honest, but they ask me and I say the truth – and the truth was it looked so exciting in training. But it's only small-sided games, shooting situations and all that.

“It's Ox, we all know and love him, that's cool, but, at the end of the day, we all need to make sure we are ready for the big-size pitch. And for this he just needs time. It's all good."