LIVERPOOL are capping Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s return to fitness by adding a year to his contract.
The England midfielder was a non-playing sub as the Reds won the Champions League final 2-0 against Tottenham after a year out with a knee injury.
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And Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will show his faith in the Ox by extending the 25-year-old’s deal to 2023.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, reportedly on £120,000 a week, has been eased back in since March after suffering ligament damage against Roma in April 2018.
The Ox had been in peak form in a more central role after initially struggling following his switch from Arsenal in August 2017.
But injury forced him to sit out last season’s 3-1 Champions League final defeat against Real Madrid and the World Cup finals.
Klopp believes fit-again Oxlade-Chamberlain will make a difference to his squad in the changing room as well as on the pitch.
Welcoming him back to full training earlier this year, the German said: “It’s brilliant and so good. Seeing his smile after he missed the chance was heartbreaking.
“He’s such a wonderful, wonderful person. Even better as a player, imagine that? He’s already a really good player but as a guy he is outstanding.”
Klopp himself had reason to be cheerful today after he trounced Pep Guardiola in a poll to choose the world’s best manager.
After Guardiola’s Manchester City pipped Liverpool to the title, Klopp reversed the standing in a survey of 250 Bundesliga players.
The ex-Borussia Dortmund boss earned 66 per cent of the vote, with Guardiola on 18.4, Ajax boss Erik ten Hag 3.6 and Spurs chief Mauricio Pochettino 3.2.
