Jurgen Klopp is adamant Alisson Becker will play again for Liverpool this season but conceded the goalkeeper's injury is "rather serious" and "not a short one".
Alisson has been sidelined for the last fortnight with a muscle issue and will be absent for his fifth successive match when the Reds travel to Nottingham Forest
Klopp has previously indicated the Brazilian will be on the shelf until after the March international break but there have been some suggestions the No.1's setback could be even more prolonged.
The Liverpool manager insists there is no timeframe being placed on Alisson's comeback
Klopp
"There is no real timescale on it, but it is a proper muscle injury,"
"Different players recover differently. That is it pretty much. It is not a short one.
"It is not that he will be in contention for next week or something like that. We have to wait a few more weeks, definitely, for him.
"He is working in the gym, not on the pitch, it is a rather serious one but not a season-ending injury."
Kelleher has deputised with aplomb during Alisson's convalescence and was excellent at Wembley
Klopp added:
"It is completely normal that you have these discussions with players who are ready. An outfield player in a situation like Caiomhin would never come and ask and talk about these sorts of perspectives because they have 10 other positions.
"With a goalkeeper it is slightly different, but it never reached a point where we had a discussion whereby it was, ‘you have to stay, shut up’. It was just the normal discussion about his future.
"The most important thing was we had to help him on the next step in his development by playing more games.
"I saw it the same way as what the player would say. He has played a lot of games now, in the Europa League, the League Cup and quite a few league games as well.
"You would have to ask him exactly what he thought, but I think now he would be pretty happy with the decision he made in the summer.
"The gap between the first and second goalkeeper cannot be a big amount.
"There must be quality in that position because the football demands are just too big to now play the goalkeeper for four years in a row in all the competitions.
"A fit player would always tell you he could play, and goalkeepers are special players and will say that but no-one can do that. That is why we are very happy now.
"I didn't get into [Kelleher's future]. For me it was never a discussion, we spoke about it but for me there was no chance of him leaving so I was not interested in who was asking.
"It would have had to be a proper price to give us a chance of doing something in a difficult market. It is not like other goalkeepers moving from A to B for £15m or £20m that is totally unrealistic and nonsense in how I understood it."
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