Adam Lallana has expressed his belief that Jurgen Klopp will secretly "love" Liverpool's injury problems because he enjoys meeting a "challenge face on".

Liverpool saw talismanic centre-back Virgil van Dijk side-lined with a cruciate ligament injury after a rash tackle from Jordan Pickford in the Merseyside derby clash with Everton on October 17.

Fabinho, a defensive midfielder by trade, was asked to fill in for the Netherlands international in subsequent wins over Ajax and Sheffield United, has proven he can play at the back during a 2-0 triumph at Chelsea earlier in the season.

The Brazilian impressed enough to retain his place alongside Joe Gomez for the meeting with FC Midtjylland at Anfield on Tuesday, but he was unable to finish the match after going down with a hamstring injury.

Klopp confirmed Fabinho will undergo a scan on the issue after the Champions League clash, but didn't sound optimistic about his chances of being fit for the Premier League encounter with West Ham at the weekend.

"He felt his hamstring, and that's not good," the German boss told reporters. "He said he could have played on but no sprints, which doesn't help. We will see, we will know more after a scan but clearly, it isn't good."

Gomez is now the only fully-fit senior central defender in Liverpool's squad, with 19-year-old Rhys Williams in line for a run in the team after a solid cameo in the 2-0 win over Midtjylland.

Lallana, who joined Brighton after being released by the Reds at the end of the 2019-20 campaign, thinks Klopp will try to turn a mounting defensive crisis into a positive, having always relished being an "underdog" over the course of his managerial career.

“He won’t use anything as an excuse, he’ll say it’s the same for every team,” the ex-Anfield favorite told BT Sport. “He’ll say, ‘we’ve got the squad to adapt and deal with it’.

“He’ll meet the challenge face on, the lads will be in tomorrow and they’ll recover and he’ll pick a team to beat West Ham. Okay, it’s going to be a test but it’s a test that he’ll love and the lads will get together and help each other out.

“Coming from the underdog region he likes that. So there’ll be a little bit of him that will enjoy this test and he’ll be fired up for it.”