Takumi Minamino has opened up on his "difficult time" at Liverpool as he prepares to capitalise on first-team opportunities over the festive period.
Minamino is approaching the end of his first year at Anfield following his £7.25million move from RB Salzburg.
However, he had been in England less than three months when the country was placed into lockdown in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And the the Japan international has expressed his gratitude to his Liverpool colleagues for helping him through a tough period.
"A lot of people, including the manager and the staff, supported me," he said.
"Thanks to them, I managed to live my life during the lockdown.
"Although it was a difficult time, a lot of people supported me, and in this sense, I think Liverpool Football Club have a wonderful team of people."
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Minamino scored his long-awaited first Premier League goal in the 7-0 romp at Crystal Palace last Saturday on only his second league start of the campaign.
And the 25-year-old is now hopeful of further first-team chances during the busy festive period.
"I am looking forward to it very much," he said. "Because there are two games in a week, I will have more chances to play games and I am happy about it.
"We suffer a lot of injuries now, so a player like me needs to work harder for the team. I would like to prepare myself well and achieve a result if I am given a chance."
Liverpool entertain West Bromwich Albion - under new manager Sam Allardyce - on Sunday aiming to strengthen their grip at the Premier League summit and extend a club-record unbeaten home run of 66 games.
For the third consecutive game, 2,000 supporters will be allowed inside Anfield, with Minamino hopeful it won't be long before many more are permitted to attend.
"When we play at Anfield, I don’t know the reason, but we always feel that we can win," said the forward, speaking to liverpoolfc.com.
"I don’t know why. The stadium always gives us power.
"It is very sad that we can’t have (more) fans in the stadium. I hope they can come back to see our play as soon as possible.
"It is difficult to expect how the team plays when they have a new manager, and it is unpredictable what happens.
"However, we only need best preparations for the match, and as long as we play our football we will see a good result.
"In this league, nobody will know what happens until the end of the season. Although we are in a good position at the moment, we must not relax but fight the best fight at every game."
