Fitting comeback for Van Dijk

VIRGIL van Dijk hailed yesterday’s return from his injury hell as ‘amazing’ and believes that if Liverpool’s stars can stay fit they will be challenging for the title.

The Dutch defender was back at the heart of Liverpool’s defence at Norwich — his first start in 302 days after suffering a cruciate ligament injury at Everton last October — and it looked like he hadn’t been away.

‘It’s amazing, to be honest,’ Van Dijk said of his long-awaited comeback which ended in a 3-0 win. ‘I’m certainly happy that I’m out there again with the team. I need games — the manager knows it, I know it.’

Van Dijk, who signed a new four-year deal at Anfield last week, described how it was the mental challenge rather than the pain of the injury which made the last ten months so hard.

‘You’re going from one day of being fully fit to the next day when you can’t walk, you are full of medication, full of pain, you can’t sleep,’ he continued. ‘Mentally that’s tough, especially in the beginning.

‘But I made great steps through pre-season and this is another big step, so hopefully we can keep that going.’

Van Dijk put in a towering defensive display alongside Joel Matip with a clean sheet and he believes Liverpool — if everyone can stay healthy — are going to be title contenders in what promises to be a wide-open race.

‘It’s exciting to see the Premier League like this,’ he said. ‘The quality that the Premier League has at this point, with all the players who have been coming in, coming back, is exciting.

‘If I’m thinking about our own team, if we stay fit, we have a good chance to be up there. You have to enjoy it and I certainly will, having been out for so long.

‘And when you can’t predict who is going to be the winner at the end of the season, it’s amazing.’