Virgil van Dijk opened up about his injury troubles and admitted Liverpool could mount a title challenge if the squad can stay fit this season.
The Reds star made his first Premier League appearance since October 2020 as Jurgen Klopp’s side ran out 3-0 winners at Carrow Road.
A seemingly routine win on opening day would have seemed anything but to Van Dijk, who cut a happy figure in his interview with Sky Sports after the final whistle.
He said: "It's amazing if I'm honest. It was a tough game for many reasons. 3-0, winning here tonight, it sounds comfortable but at times we made some things difficult for ourselves and came a little bit under pressure.
“Maybe it was fatigue, maybe it’s something we have to do better but we can’t be negative about tonight, we won 3-0.
“I'm certainly happy that I'm back out there again with the boys, helping the team, and hopefully I can continue and we’ll see what it brings.”
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Earning a clean sheet upon his return, the Dutchman admitted that both him and Jurgen Klopp know he needs to manage his recovery but the 30-year-old is optimistic about the upcoming season.
Having endured almost a year out of action, the centre-back revealed it took time to adjust to first-team training as he joked he hadn’t been “shouting at the rest of the team for such a long time”.
Van Dijk candidly opened up about the doubts and problems that he faced immediately after his injury.
“You’re going from one day of being fully fit to the next day you can't walk”, he said.
“You’re full of medication, you’re full of pain, you can’t sleep. Everyone has their opinion and you read those things because you have nothing to do.”
Forced to miss the remainder of last season, Van Dijk watched on as Liverpool fell victim to an injury crisis throughout the squad.
He admitted: “We were struggling last season with more injuries, more injuries in key positions that meant we couldn't play our game.
“The way we want to play high pressure, full of energy and when we have midfielders at centre back it’s not easy at all. In the end the guys did a fantastic job to come third.”
Speaking about the team’s prospects for this season, Van Dijk was careful not to be too bold in his predictions but was optimistic of the Reds’ hopes of pushing for the title.
Though Liverpool’s title rivals have all spent big this summer, with the squad now back to full strength, Klopp’s side will look to replicate their standards from the 2019/20 season.
“If I'm thinking about our own team, if we stay fit we have a good chance of being up there," the Liverpool defender said.
“We’ll see what the season brings. We all have to enjoy it, I certainly will, having been out so long.
“To play against world-class strikers again, against world-class teams, and you can't predict who's going to win [the title], it's amazing.”
