Virgil van Dijk offers Liverpool fans hope of return this season with recovery montage for injured knee as he shares ‘step by step’ progress
- Virgil van Dijk suffered a horror knee injury from Jordan Pickford’s lunge at him
- Liverpool defender is expected to miss the rest of this season as he recovers
- He shared an update of his progress and is working hard with medical staff
- Van Dijk was seen kicking a ball and strengthening knee with various weights
Virgil van Dijk has given Liverpool fans hope he may recover faster than first thought after sharing a progress update video on Instagram.
The centre-back, who suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury from Jordan Pickford’s horrendous challenge on him earlier this season in the Merseyside derby, is back kicking a ball again.
He shared a montage of footage from his rehabilitation which involves plenty of work in the weights room to strengthen his ligaments again.
Virgil van Dijk shared a video of his rehabilitation and is clearly making rapid progress
The Liverpool defender is fighting to return before the end of the season for the Reds
Van Dijk shared a montage video with his 10 million followers on Instagram on Monday
The video posted to his 10 million Instagram followers begins with him volleying a ball back to someone out of shot.
It is immediately a surprise to see Van Dijk able to perform a simple football task given the nature of his injury suffered on October 17.
He is then seen performing a squat with a bar and then dumbell in his hands. And there were other drills too, one thrusting the bar upwards and another of simple passing off the ball.
Van Dijk was seen kicking a ball again for the first time since suffering the injury
Van Dijk has been taking advantage of Liverpool’s new state-of-the-art AXA training centre in Kirkby, which cost £50million for the Reds to construct.
Liverpool have always refused to rule Van Dijk out for the rest of the season and there will be faint optimism that he could work his way back by the end of the campaign.
It would be an impressive feat if he managed it as anterior cruciate ligament injuries are notoriously laborious to recover from.
Van Dijk wrote: ‘Step by step’, next to the video of his rehabilitation and Liverpool are making positive strides themselves despite his absence.
The Liverpool defender suffered the injury from Jordan Pickford’s horror tackle in October
The Premier League champions are top of the league at Christmas having walloped Crystal Palace in their last game.
Van Dijk is among a number of absentees, including centre-back partner Joe Gomez with Thiago Alcantara also a big name sidelined.
Joel Matip, Fabinho, Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips have all filled in well for the Dutchman.
And the Reds have marched on in an impressive first half of the season, progressing in the Champions League and putting down a marker for their title rivals domestically.