James Milner Set to Miss Liverpool's Final Friendly After Significant Head Injury in Rout of Napoli

Liverpool midfielder James Milner is set to miss the Reds' final pre-season game against Torino on Tuesday, after suffering a significant facial injury in a clash with Napoli's Mario Rui during Liverpool's 5-0 win. 

As confirmed on the Reds' official website, the former England international needed 15 stitches after a coming together with Rui, and was forced to leave the field at the Aviva Stadium as a result of the challenge. 

Milner, who captained Jurgen Klopp's side before being withdrawn, will almost certainly miss the visit of Torino at Anfield as well as requiring late fitness tests for Sunday's opening game against West Ham. 

The former Manchester City man had opened the scoring and assisted Gini Wijnaldum before being forced to leave the field. After the final whistle, Klopp had this to say on the matter, “I knew that he would get stitches because we saw it on the pitch.

"He’s in the dressing room so I have to see him first before I can say more. That’s obviously the big shadow over that game."

The injury to Milner was perhaps the only grey cloud on an otherwise shining day for the Merseysiders against Napoli, with all of Milner, Wijnaldum, Mohamed Salah, Daniel Sturridge and Alberto Moreno earning a place on the scoresheet. 

New boy Alisson, who became the world's most expensive goalkeeper after his switch to Anfield, was making his debut for the club and caught the eye with his exquisite range of passing from the back. 

Despite the impressive form of the Champions League finalists in pre season, Klopp has warned both his side and the Liverpool fans not to read too much into the results of their summer's work, instead warning of the threat that West Ham will pose this Sunday. 

“I don't care what people think now about our team, our squad, that's really not important", said Klopp. It's only important that we make sure that we get a team together for the Tuesday game and then, even more important, for the Sunday against West Ham. They will be a completely different challenge, we know that already.

“So, don't let the expectations grow somewhere because the Premier League is hard work and not flying football. It's not about winning 5-0, it's about winning 1-0 five times much more.

“But, of course, it's much better than we would have lost 5-0 [and have] no confidence and need to work on pretty much everything. We know what we have to work on and we will do that."