That’s the worry of Steve Nicol, who thinks the manager’s use of the word “tear” should worry Liverpool fans.
The Brazilian was not in the squad for the Reds’ 5-0 rout of Huddersfield on Friday night.
His absence came after rumours on Twitter earlier in the day suggested Firmino would be ruled out for the rest of the season due to an ankle injury.
Klopp hit out at such rumours post-match, declaring that fans should not believe even “three per-cent” of what they read on social media.
Speaking to BBC Sport, the German declared: “Roberto Firmino is not out for the rest of the season.
“It’s true yesterday [on Thursday], after training, he fell obviously a little bit, he went to the physiotherapist and they wanted to wait overnight.
“This morning he came and said he still feels it a little bit. It’s kind of a small tear. We will see.
“It’s Bobby Firmino, so I would say it’s likely he’s ready for Barcelona. Of course we don’t know 100 per-cent.
“It’s not too long a time. Like I said, it’s Bobby and he’s a machine. We will see. We will take no risk of course.”
But Liverpool legend Nicol – who spent 13 years at the club and won 10 trophies at Anfield – believes Klopp simply did not want to open up about how serious Firmino’s injury truly is.
Nicol said on ESPN FC: “That’s not good. He didn’t say, ‘A little fibre’ or ‘just a tear’, he said a tear.
“That puts a different spin on it completely for me. I don’t like the sound of that.
“Listen, when the press are talking to you as a coach, you really don’t want to tell them the truth.
“You’re always trying to cover things a little bit. If he thought Bobby Firmino was going to play, he’d say, ‘He’s got a wee knock but he’ll be fine’.
“When you start going into detail and start using the word tear, that scares me. A tear, you can’t play. You can’t do it.”
Fellow ESPN FC pundit Alejandro Moreno added: “There’s no such thing as a little tear when it comes to a muscle injury. When there’s a tear, there’s a tear.
“The only way to recover from that is rehab and rest and all those other things because you need the muscle to heal.
“I don’t think the ideal situation for Liverpool is trying to have it heal while in the semi finals of the Champions League. That’s not the way to recover from it.”
