Liverpool defender Nathaniel Clyne is all set to miss another three months after undergoing an operation for his back injury, manager Jurgen Klopp has confirmed.

The right-back has not featured for Liverpool since picking up the problem in pre-season prior to the current season and although the club ruled him out for “a significant period of time” in September, no confirmation over a return date was made official.

Only a couple of weeks back, Clyne started his light training at Melwood and Jurgen Klopp went on to describe it as “a big step” forward in his recovery. But since then, the defender has suffered further problems.

Independent claims that the right-back underwent a minor corrective surgery on his back on Monday and will only be made available for selection around February. Clyne’s absence, in one way or the other, has benefited the likes of Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold. The former needed regular first-team action after coming back from a lengthy spell of constant injuries and for the latter, it has been an impressive journey so far.

Klopp earlier admitted that Clyne’s rehabilitation has taken “a few steps back”.

“He was in a good way, running with high intensity but the muscle showed a little reaction. That was not an injury, and usually with a healthy and fit player you wouldn’t even think about it. In his case because it was a little sign again from the back, we took him out and it’s a few steps back again.”

“That’s how back problems are,” Klopp was further quoted by BBC. We showed him to specialists all over the world and it is not a big problem, it just needs time, that is all.”

Clyne’s injury issues have coincided with Sadio Mane’s recent hamstring worries. While on international duty, the Senegalese was released from the national side and is now expected to miss some significant action. For Clyne though, he will now be targetting a late run into Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the 2018 World Cup and let’s all hope he gets the nod.