Martin Skrtel is confident he will be ready to return to the Liverpool team before the busy festive programme.

The Slovakia international, who has been sidelined since early October when he damaged a posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during the 3-2 win at Manchester City, is happy with the way his recuperation is going.

He said: "The injury is much better. It has been six weeks since the injury and I have stopped using the crutches, but obviously I have work to do in order to get the ligament back to what it was before.

"The pain when it happened was huge and I thought it was much worse than it actually was. Once I was back in the changing room I realised it was not as serious as I first feared.

"I was unhappy but injuries are part of football games. The first week or two was the worst but then I started to look forward to doing exercises that helped me to heal and speed up the recovery process.

"I don't know exactly the date I will be back but the predictions were for before Christmas and I am hoping it is as soon as possible

"It has been a long time. I can't wait to start kicking a ball again and resume full training."