Premier League Joel Matip says he needed to sort out his legs after long injury lay-off

Cameroonian defender Joel Matip has opened up on his struggles with injuries that sidelined him for the better chunk of last season, saying he underwent special sessions to sort out his legs.

Nonetheless, the centre-back said he was excited to return to action for Liverpool who face Burnley on Saturday in a first home game of the season.

It’s wonderful. To be out there on the pitch, with supporters, it’s just great to be back and to do the things you love. It was quite good to come through a whole pre-season, to get prepared as good as possible. But with the long break I had before it was also necessary to get some sessions in my legs,” Matip told the club’s website. 

Liverpool started the season with a 3-0 win over Norwich City last weekend on the road and now Matip is looking forward to playing at home against Burnley.

 “I think most of the games at home you always feel the extra push. If you go the extra metre the audience will give you credit for this and will help you. This always pushes you for every metre and every second you are on the pitch. It’s always amazing there but after this long time, a proper Premier League game, I think it will be something special,” he said.

Matip, who retired from representing Cameroon in 2017, said Liverpool did not have the best of performances in the win over Norwich but what mattered was the win.

Of course there is still a lot to improve but it was important to win the first game. The most important thing were the three points. Away, in a full stadium and an amazing atmosphere there, we had to fight against them. They started quite good and started to play really good football, but we struck back and yeah, [it was] a good beginning,” he said.

The injury of Matip and fellow defenders Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez cost Liverpool the battle for the title defence last season which saw them finish on third place with 69 points quiet a distance from champions Manchester City’s 86 points.

Matip joined Liverpool in 2016 from Schalke in the Germany Bundesliga and went on to become an established member of Jurgen Kloop squad as they won the Premier League title and the Uefa Champions League titles in 2019/20 season.


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